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I understand the threat much more clearly and it really does make so
more<br>
sense to worry about war when it is framed in the spectral context of
"President Palin".<br>
<br>
<br>
*<br>
<br>
And this one woman, she was 23 or 24 And she was laying on the bed And
you knew she was going to die... And, erh, we gave her a bottle of
shampoo...<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 3/22/2011 1:33 AM, Robert Naiman wrote:
<blockquote
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<div class="gmail_quote"><span
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<a moz-do-not-send="true"
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title="Permanent Link to Congress Must Debate the Libya War"
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target="_blank">Congress Must Debate the Libya War</a></h2>
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By: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
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target="_blank">Robert Naiman</a> Monday March 21, 2011 1:12 pm</td>
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<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">The
U.S. is now at war in a third Muslim country, according to the
“official tally” (that is, counting Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya but not
Pakistan or Yemen, for example.) But Congress has never authorized or
debated the U.S. military intervention in Libya. (A sharply disputed
claim holds that the Pakistan and Yemen actions are covered by the 2001
authorization of military force, but no-one has dared to argue that the
2001 AUMF covers Libya.)</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
Some will no doubt claim that the President is acting in Libya within
his authority as Commander-in-Chief. But this is an extremely dangerous
claim.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">To
put it crudely: as a matter of logic, if President Obama can bomb Libya
without Congressional authorization, then President Palin can bomb Iran
without Congressional authorization. If, God forbid, we ever get to
that fork in the road, you can bet your bottom dollar that the
advocates of bombing Iran will invoke Congressional silence now as
justification for their claims of unilateral Presidential authority to
bomb anywhere, anytime.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
Some Members of Congress have strongly objected to President Obama’s
bombing of Libya without Congressional approval.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">On
the Democratic side, John Larson, chair of the Democratic Caucus in the
House, called for President Obama to seek congressional approval. Reps.
Jerrold Nadler, Donna Edwards, Mike Capuano, Dennis Kucinich, Maxine
Waters, Rob Andrews, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barbara Lee and Eleanor Holmes
Norton “all strongly raised objections to the constitutionality of the
president’s actions” during a Saturday call organized by Larson, the <em
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Politico </em><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51595.html"
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(15, 102, 145); text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">reports</a>.</p>
<blockquote
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: italic; color: rgb(67, 98, 129);">
<div
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 30px 2px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">“They
consulted the Arab League. They consulted the United Nations. They did
not consult the United States Congress,” one Democrat[ic] lawmaker said
of the White House. “They’re creating wreckage, and they can’t obviate
that by saying there are no boots on the ground. … There aren’t boots
on the ground; there are Tomahawks in the air.”</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
“Almost everybody who spoke was opposed to any unilateral actions or
decisions being made by the president, and most of us expressed our
constitutional concerns. There should be a resolution and there should
be a debate so members of Congress can decide whether or not we enter
in whatever this action is being called,” added another House Democrat
opposed to the Libyan operation.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
“Whose side are we on? This appears to be more of a civil war than some
kind of a revolution. Who are protecting? Are we with the people that
are supposedly opposed to [Qadhafi]? You think they have a lot of
people with him? If he is deposed, who will we be dealing with? There
are a lot of questions here from members.”</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">On
the Republican side, Senator Richard Lugar, ranking Member on Senate
Foreign Relations, told <em
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">CBS</em>‘
Face the Nation yesterday that if we’re going to war with Libya, we
ought to have a declaration of war by the Congress:</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
A memo distributed to Republican aides in the Senate Armed Services and
Foreign Relations Committee made the case that Congressional
authorization is necessary and used Barack Obama’s own words to make
the case, <em
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">ABC</em> <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/congress-vote-libya-fly-zone/story?id=13167045"
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(15, 102, 145); text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">reported</a>.</p>
<blockquote
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: italic; color: rgb(67, 98, 129);">
<div
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 30px 2px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">The
memo quotes Obama when he was in the Senate and there were concerns
that then-President George W. Bush would take strike Iran.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">“The
president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally
authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve
stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,” the memo quotes
then-Senator Obama saying on Dec. 20, 2007.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">In
times like this, you can be sure some journalist will marvel at the “<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/20/obama-libya_n_838219.html"
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(15, 102, 145); text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">strange bedfellows</a>” coalition of Democrats and
Republicans standing up to the President. But there’s nothing strange
about this bed. Everyone who wants to live in a constitutional republic
belongs in this bed. Everyone who wants to hold the Administration to
its promise of a “limited intervention” aimed at “protecting
civilians,” rather than overthrowing the Libyan government, and to
avoid “mission creep” from the former to the latter, belongs in this
bed.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
Congressional debate is a key means of compelling the Administration to
clearly state its case and its objectives, to be honest and transparent
about the potential cost of its proposed policies, and to limit its
actions to its stated objectives; and to force Members of Congress to
go on the record, in opposition or in support, and to state clearly, if
they support, what it is that they support. On cost, for example: each
Tomahawk missile is reported to cost on the order of a million dollars.
So, firing 110 of them over the weekend cost about $100 million, far
more than House Republicans cut from National Public Radio with great
fanfare. Shouldn’t Congress consider this expenditure?</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
Two days into the military intervention, there was already sharp
dispute over whether the military intervention that has unfolded has
already gone beyond what the UN Security Council authorized and what
the Arab League endorsed.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
Yesterday, the <em
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">New
York Times</em> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/world/africa/21libya.html"
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(15, 102, 145); text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">reported</a>:</p>
<blockquote
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: italic; color: rgb(67, 98, 129);">
<div
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 30px 2px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">A
day after a summit meeting in Paris set the military operation in
motion, some Arab participants in the agreement expressed unhappiness
with the way the strikes were unfolding. The former chairman of the
Arab League, Amr Moussa, told Egyptian state media that he was calling
for an emergency Arab League meeting to discuss the situation in the
Arab world and particularly Libya.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly
zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the
bombardment of more civilians,” he said, referring to Libyan government
claims that allied bombardment had killed dozens of civilians in and
near Tripoli.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Today,
Moussa appeared to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110321/wl_nm/us_libya_arabs_moussa_1"
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(15, 102, 145); text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">walk back</a> these remarks.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
But with Benghazi apparently no longer under Libyan government threat,
and with Western bombs falling in Tripoli, this dispute over the scope
of Western bombing is virtually certain to intensify.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">You
can debate the constitutional issue of war powers until the cows come
home; but as a practical matter, if Congress doesn’t formally address
the issue, such debate isn’t very relevant. If a majority of the House
and the Senate support the present US military intervention in Libya,
let them say so on the record, at least, by voting for a resolution to
authorize military force. If the majority of the House or Senate are
opposed, let them say so on the record. A minimum standard for
transparency in government is that the House and the Senate go on the
record for or against a new war.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
<strong
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">UPDATE:</strong> Former
MoveOn and Democracy for America staffer Ilya Sheyman, who is exploring
a run for Congress in Illinois’ 10th Congressional District, has a <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.ilyasheyman.com/on-libya/"
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(15, 102, 145); text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">petition</a> calling for Congress to debate the war in
Libya.</p>
<p
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">
<i
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Robert
Naiman is Policy Director at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/"
style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(15, 102, 145); text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">Just Foreign Policy</a>.</i></p>
</div>
</span><br>
<font color="#888888">-- <br>
Robert Naiman<br>
Policy Director<br>
Just Foreign Policy<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org"
target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org"
target="_blank">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</a><br>
<br>
</font></div>
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