Kucinich: President Needs Congressional Go-Ahead for Libya No-Fly Zone

1250 AM WTMA ^ | Friday, March 18, 2011 | ABC News Radio

[SunkenCiv]

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is calling for the recessed Congress to come back into session after President Obama announced that the United States will support a United Nations-approved no-fly-zone over Libya.

Kucinich, an outspoken opponent to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said in a statement that the president does not have the Constitutional power to unilaterally declare war and called on House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to immediately call the Congress back into session "to decide whether or not to authorize the United States' participation in a military strike."

"While the action is billed as protecting the civilians of Libya, a no-fly-zone begins with an attack on the air defenses of Libya and Qaddafi forces. It is an act of war. The president made statements which attempt to minimize U.S. action, but U.S. planes may drop U.S. bombs and U.S. missiles may be involved in striking another sovereign nation. War from the air is still war," Kucinich, D-Ohio, wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders Friday afternoon. "Whether the U.S. takes military action is not for the UN alone to decide. There is a constitutional imperative in the United States with respect to deciding to commit our U.S. armed forces to war."

"Both houses of Congress must weigh in," he added. "This is not for the President alone, or for a few high ranking Members of Congress to decide."

But the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told ABC News Friday afternoon that he did not believe Congressional authorization is necessary for U.S. involvement, and credited the president for opening up a White House national security briefing Friday to Congressional leaders from both parties.

[navyblue]

The truth remains that Libya has not attacked us in any form.”

Pan American airlines (RIP) was an Amrican flag carrier if i’m not mistaken.

[xzins]

Not getting congressional approval before acting in the past is not reason to continue ignoring Congress decades later. Congessional consent was eventually given.