There’s good news for those of you who worry that America can’t carry on three simultaneous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya: Whatever that thing in Libya is, it’s not a war.
We know this because President Obama searched high and low in his administration until he found two lawyers who valued their jobs enough to tell him what he wanted to hear.
The New York Times has the decidedly dovish details:
President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.
Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon general counsel, and Caroline D. Krass, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, had told the White House that they believed that the United States military’s activities in the NATO-led air war amounted to “hostilities.” Under the War Powers Resolution, that would have required Mr. Obama to terminate or scale back the mission after May 20.
But Mr. Obama decided instead to adopt the legal analysis of several other senior members of his legal team — including the White House counsel, Robert Bauer, and the State Department legal adviser, Harold H. Koh — who argued that the United States military’s activities fell short of “hostilities.” Under that view, Mr. Obama needed no permission from Congress to continue the mission unchanged.
Liberals used to say, “Make love, not war.” That has now been amended to “Make up new definitions, not war.”
Source: New York Times
This post was last modified on June 19, 2011
View Comments (13)
Sock Puppet is just following in the great tradition of Harry Truman (D) who made sure we never at "war" in Korea, just engaged in a "police action."
(Yes I learned that from MASH.)
I am sure the media will have something to say about this in the sense of condemning Obama for being so unconstitutional...
*crickets*
Anyone? ... Anyone?...
Yeah, right, want to buy conservative right leaning news channel.
*crickets*
Unfortunately, the phrase "kinetic military action" loses something in the translation. It makes a lot more sense in Obama's native language, which is Bullshit.
How the hell is this country and her people going to remain free from tyranny if time after time the law of the land only applies to the governed and not to those who govern? How the hell are we not on the verge of a totalitarian regime when the practice today is to act then see if those actions were constitutional? How the hell can we ever turn back to the great ideas and principles set forth by our founders when only a small percentage in this country even know what those ideas and principles are?
..... I have no idea.
I hope Qaddafi walks just so he and the situation can throw salt into the O's eyes. Serves the little bitch right!
Lybia is not a war, it's consider as World War X.
The action in Libya is not a war, but a consistent series of destructive skirmishes. In other words, it's war.
The proof that it's not a real war is that we're not paying for it with real money, but with magic 'QE' bucks.
Are these the same morons who came up with terms like "kinetic action" instead of war and "man made conflict" instead of Islamic terrorism?
Doesn't matter if you're a waste management engineer, you're still a trashman. When will these people cut the crap?
When we put obomie out of office.
Just like getting diagnosed with cancer - you don't like that so you keep looking till you find a doctor willing to say you don't have cancer. You still have the disease, mind you, but you don't have to hear about it or treat it. This is ultimate case of denial - sound familiar?