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Since when does the UN authorize the US to go to war?
Israpundit ^ | March 19, 2011 | Ted Belman

Posted on 03/20/2011 8:20:01 AM PDT by EternalVigilance

Andrew C. McCarthy says Go to Congress first before warring against Libya.

    On Thursday evening, the U.N. Security Council voted 10–0 (with five abstentions, including China, Russia, and Germany) to authorize the use of military force (i.e., “all necessary measures”) against Libya. Ostensibly, the resolution is designed to protect the Libyan people. But not to mince words, it is a license for war against the regime of Moammar Qaddafi. It would kick hostilities off with a no-fly zone over Libya. As a practical matter, American armed forces must do the heavy lifting if the strategy is to have a prayer, and indications are that [Alleged] President Obama intends to oblige.
    There is a catch: The Security Council is powerless to “authorize” the U.S. military to do a damned thing. The validity of American combat operations is a matter of American law, and that means Congress must authorize them.

    Our Constitution vests Congress with the power to declare war. That authority cannot be delegated to an international tribunal that lacks political accountability to the American people. The decision to go to war is the most significant one a body politic can make. Thus the Framers designed our system to make certain that the responsible officials are answerable to the people whose lives are at stake and who are expected to foot the bills.

and concludes

    But there should be no debating that absent a hostile invasion of our country, a forcible attack against our interests, or a clear threat against us so imminent that Americans may be harmed unless prompt action is taken, the United States should not launch combat operations without congressional approval.

But James V. Capua in Obama and the Libya decision has a different take.

    Barack Obama finally has a war he can believe in. The intervention in Libya promises to conform just about perfectly to the president’s world view. He hastened to declare in his Friday afternoon statement what it would not entail– no US troops on the ground, and somebody else will lead it.

    Now at first glance it might appear he is merely being cautious – limiting our exposure to minimize any unfortunate foreign or domestic fallout should the television images get unpleasant, but one cannot help but suspect that the motive is less to minimize the US role than it is to exalt that of the UN and other supra-national organizations, such as the Arab League, and all of the NGO camp followers that normally feed off such international coalitions.

    Additionally, this action promises finally to use American military power in the kind of international relief and social service agency capacity Obama’s internationalist foreign policy team would like it to be, its mission unsullied by grubby considerations of national interest. One observer has already compared it to the international intervention in Kosovo, intervention that delivered the Kosovars into the hands of UN and EU caretakers, despite their declaration of independence.

    [..]

    Even more significantly Obama’s world view requires victims to be serviced, and not winners to be supported. As long as the Libyan rebels had a chance to prevail, they were of little value to a messianic narcissist bent on removing the “Incomplete” from his Nobel Peace Prize citation. Pitiful, battered, pleading Libyans huddled around Benghazi are the prerequisite for making this this intervention work politically. In just the same way Obama and Pelosi needed the image of sick, desperate, hard up Americans to make the case for ObamaCare, the Stimuli, and financial services “reform.”

    [..]

    War without victory, intervention that produces dependency, Americans shouldering the burdens but obscured in a fog of UN acronyms, a maze of rules of engagement and process that squeezes every last bit of spirit and motivation out of warriors, it may not be a strategy, but it sure as hell explains the motivation.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Extended News; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: breachofpowers; libya; obama; unconstitutional; usurper; warpowers
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To: Just A Nobody

Let’s be perfectly clear about something, folks....

Yesterday, Obama destroyed the moral superiority and the moral high ground the liberal left has been claiming since 2003.

In a single act, he has exposed the utter hypocrisy of all the years of anti-war stances held by the Democratic Party and the liberal left.

It was NEVER really about the wars, it was only about hurting Bush, and getting a Radical Democrat elected as President of the United States.

We MUST drive this point home to everyone we know, in any way we can, before the “OBAMA WARRIOR PRESIDENT!” meme takes hold.


61 posted on 03/20/2011 10:40:15 AM PDT by tcrlaf (2012 Slogan: "You'd Have To Be Insane, To Vote For Hussein!")
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To: tcrlaf; All

Let’s be perfectly clear about something, folks....

Yesterday, Obama destroyed the moral superiority and the moral high ground the liberal left has been claiming since 2003.

In a single act, he has exposed the utter hypocrisy of all the years of anti-war stances held by the Democratic Party and the liberal left.

It was NEVER really about the wars, it was only about hurting Bush, and getting a Radical Democrat elected as President of the United States.

We MUST drive this point home to everyone we know, in any way we can, before the “OBAMA WARRIOR PRESIDENT!” meme takes hold.


62 posted on 03/20/2011 10:44:37 AM PDT by tcrlaf (2012 Slogan: "You'd Have To Be Insane, To Vote For Hussein!")
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To: tcrlaf

The temptations to hypocrisy that are available to political people are many, and foreign policy is certainly no exception.

Might be a really good idea for conservatives to remember not to become what they say they hate.

Principled consistency is what is called for.

Something the Left has no concept of, of course.


63 posted on 03/20/2011 10:45:56 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Nice 'til I'm not.)
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To: EternalVigilance

The hell with the UN. When did Congress authorize this?


64 posted on 03/20/2011 10:47:19 AM PDT by onedoug (If)
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To: onedoug

They haven’t.


65 posted on 03/20/2011 10:49:01 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Nice 'til I'm not.)
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To: Logical me
Moammar Qaddafi killed Americans!!!!

What about the war in your own backyard?

Are you so distracted by this Obama campaign event decoy and U.N. one world police action, you failed to notice?

More people are being killed and wounded, right on the Mexican/Texas border, not to mention Mexicans are causing epic harm to our economy, are choking off our medical system and have killed, raped, robbed shot, stabbed, and ran over tens of thousands of Americans ...

Shouldn't be be bombing Mexico?

66 posted on 03/20/2011 10:49:20 AM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Las Vegas Ron

Wonder when will the UN declare a no fly zone over the US?


67 posted on 03/20/2011 10:50:02 AM PDT by hapnHal (hapnHal)
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To: tcrlaf
Yesterday, Obama destroyed the moral superiority and the moral high ground the liberal left has been claiming since 2003. In a single act, he has exposed the utter hypocrisy of all the years of anti-war stances held by the Democratic Party and the liberal left.


68 posted on 03/20/2011 10:52:36 AM PDT by paulycy (Islamo-Marxism is Evil.)
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To: paulycy

I’ve done that two days in a row now.

I’m losing it.


69 posted on 03/20/2011 10:54:54 AM PDT by paulycy (Islamo-Marxism is Evil.)
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To: EternalVigilance

bump

The UN and NATO have been ruling over congress for quite some time.


70 posted on 03/20/2011 10:55:12 AM PDT by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid! (Obama:If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun (the REAL Arizona instigator))
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To: hapnHal

Heehee, we might have to so Obomber can return from Rio.


71 posted on 03/20/2011 10:56:21 AM PDT by Las Vegas Ron (The Tree of Liberty did not grow from an ACORN!)
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To: TopQuark

There may just be a “few of us” that don’t recognize our country at present.


72 posted on 03/20/2011 10:56:58 AM PDT by ImpBill ("America ... where are you now?" signed, a little "r" republican!)
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To: TADSLOS
Obama's Az. Memorial/campaign speech used the term UNITY IN DIVERSITY.

Russian-President-Dmitry-Medvedev-pulls-new-world-currency-from-his-pocket

http://udcworld.org/

http://www.futureworldcurrency.com

73 posted on 03/20/2011 11:02:34 AM PDT by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid! (Obama:If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun (the REAL Arizona instigator))
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To: EternalVigilance; Col Frank Slade
Congressional GOP's response to Obama on Libya is largely muted
Barry's announcement of a U.S. military role in the Libyan conflict on Friday met mostly with silence from Republican congressional leaders. [Leaders? What "leader" remains silent in a case like this?]

Barry briefed a bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders at the White House before his speech to the nation, but Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) withheld comment in the hours after his address.

If you can stand it...Here is a vid of Lugar on Face the Nation today.

Although this article is 10 days old it quotes a number of critters, including J F'ing.

74 posted on 03/20/2011 11:02:44 AM PDT by Just A Nobody ( (Better Dead than RED! NEVER AGAIN...Support our Troops! Beware the ENEMEDIA))
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To: TopQuark
TopQuark said: I am still struggling to explain why conservatives, including Sarah Palin, would even think a second about supporting attacks on Libya

You are free to sit at home and hatch eggs. Only real men can think beyond themselves.

75 posted on 03/20/2011 11:04:33 AM PDT by R4nd0m
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To: Just A Nobody

Thanks.

I think a lot of things are becoming clearer.


76 posted on 03/20/2011 11:05:30 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Nice 'til I'm not.)
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To: tcrlaf
In a single act, he has exposed the utter hypocrisy of all the years of anti-war stances held by the Democratic Party and the liberal left.

Excellent point!

It was NEVER really about the wars, it was only about hurting Bush, and getting a Radical Democrat elected as President of the United States.

Just exactly right! Many of us have known this for a very long time. Their alleged outrage at the war in Iraq made no sense nor did any of their talking points.

We MUST drive this point home to everyone we know, in any way we can, before the “OBAMA WARRIOR PRESIDENT!” meme takes hold.

Agree! I was posting on that very point on a number of other sites last night.

77 posted on 03/20/2011 11:06:12 AM PDT by Just A Nobody ( (Better Dead than RED! NEVER AGAIN...Support our Troops! Beware the ENEMEDIA))
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To: Just A Nobody
Kucinich has called for the impeachement of Zero.

The only real titan in the Dem party to watch is Hillary.

78 posted on 03/20/2011 11:08:19 AM PDT by Col Frank Slade
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To: EternalVigilance
I think a lot of things are becoming clearer.

And scarier, if you ask me.

79 posted on 03/20/2011 11:09:30 AM PDT by Just A Nobody ( (Better Dead than RED! NEVER AGAIN...Support our Troops! Beware the ENEMEDIA))
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To: Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!

Propping up the UDC


80 posted on 03/20/2011 11:12:28 AM PDT by Daffynition ( DBKP ~ Death By 1000 Papercuts)
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