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The U.S. Air Force has deployed its bombers like never before in the Libya campaign. Wired picked up a story released by Air Force Magazine detailing a flight made this spring by two B1 bombers from South Dakota to Libya carrying ninety-eight, 500 pound bombs. During 24 hours of combat time over four days, the bombers destroyed nearly 100 targets. The B1s were chosen on top of NATO's combined air fleet because each one carries around 24,000 pounds of Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Laser guided JDAMs. To achieve equal destruction would have required dozens of NATO jets.

New Libyan rebel recruits train near Benghazi. France today admitted arming rebels in partsof the country, in apparent defiance of the UN mandate Nato is reviewing the conduct of its military campaign in Libya after France admitted arming rebel fighters in apparent defiance of the UN mandate. The revelation surprised officials in Nato's headquarters in Brussels and raised awkward questions about whether the French had broken international law – UN resolution 1973 specifically allows Nato nations to protect civilians in Libya, but appears to stop short of permitting the provision of weapons. Nato has consistently said it would not arm...

<p>A smoke plume rises into the sky over Tripoli, Libya, June 7, 2011 following a NATO airstrike.</p> <p>TRIPOLI - The strain of having to run a regime besieged by almost hourly airstrikes and a local rebellion is taking not only a physical toll on senior officials here, but a psychological one as well.</p>

Muammar Gaddafi has called for the UN Security Council to investigate after a heavy air strike by Nato. The Libyan leader accused Nato of murder in an audio address to the nation, days after the alliance acknowledged for the first time its bombs may have caused civilian casualties.

House Speaker John Boehner isn’t swayed by movement in the Senate to back U.S. military involvement in Libya, saying Wednesday that the House is leaning against authorizing President Barack Obama’s actions in the North African dictatorship. In terms of authorizing force, the Ohio Republican said: “I don’t think that’s where the House is.” House GOP leadership unveiled two Libya resolutions Tuesday night: one would end U.S. involvement and the other would authorize the use of force. The latter option is similar to a resolution introduced in the Senate by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), who want to...

The White House is telling Congress that President Obama has the legal authority to continue American participation in the NATO-led air war in Libya, even though lawmakers have not authorized it. In a broader package of materials the Obama administration is sending to Congress on Wednesday defending its Libya policy, the White House, for the first time, offers lawmakers and the public an argument for why Mr. Obama has not been violating the War Powers Resolution since May 20. On that day, the Vietnam-era law’s 60-day deadline for terminating unauthorized hostilities appeared to pass. But the White House argued that...

House Floor Remarks, June 3rd M. Speaker: Lets be clear: without prior Congressional authorization, under the War Powers Act, the President may only commit armed forces to hostilities for sixty days if there is a direct attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions or its armed forces. There was none, so there is no sixty day clock and the President’s unprovoked attack on Libya – from Day One – constituted an illegal and unconstitutional act of the highest significance. If the President felt there was moral justification to attack Libya, he was constitutionally required to make his case...

President Obama could get a second chance to sell Congress on the military operation in Libya, thanks to some last-minute help from an unlikely ally: House Speaker John A. Boehner. On Thursday, with some liberals and conservatives trying to get Congress to force a withdrawal from Libya, Boehner (R-Ohio) offered an alternative. He introduced a resolution that would give Obama 14 more days to make his case. Boehner’s resolution would vent congressional anger, stating that “the president has not sought, and Congress has not provided, authorization” for the operation. It also contains a threat that Congress might cut off funding...

In the immortal words of the vice president, this could be a big $%^ing deal: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is throwing what one Republican calls “a legal and political hot potato at the President.” In a resolution to be voted on in the House tomorrow, Boehner is giving the president two weeks –until the Pentagon Appropriations bill comes up –to either: a) Ask for authorization for the military intervention in Libya, or b) Figure out how to disengage the US from the NATO operation in Libya. The resolution states: “The President has not sought, and Congress has not provided,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed Monday on a resolution backing limited U.S. involvement in the NATO-led military campaign against Libya, days after the expiration of the legal deadline for President Barack Obama to seek full-blown congressional authorization. Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, introduced the non-binding resolution along with five other Republicans and Democrats. (SNIP) Also backing the resolution were Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

The aerial bombardment of Libya has reached a dead end, which has intensified talk among NATO members about a possible land operation, a move that threatens to escalate massively the violence that already exists there. The alliance's spokesman has admitted there is still little sign of progress for either side in the conflict, so there is a need for a new UN resolution to approve sending foreign troops in. In the meantime, civilian casualties from allied bombing continue to mount as fresh NATO air strikes have been heard in the Libyan capital overnight. At a video conference with Russian students,...

The U.S. is not at war with Libya and has not taken sides, but President Obama nevertheless has signed off on the use of armed predator drones in the North African nation that has been torn by a weeks-old bloody conflict, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. "What the president has said that where we have some unique capabilities, he is going to use those, and in fact he has approved the use of armed predators, and I think today may have been in fact their first mission," he said. The president approved the use of two unmanned aircraft around...

Remember when a crusading president, acting on dubious intelligence, insufficient information, and exaggerated fears, took the nation into a Middle Eastern war of choice? That was George W. Bush in 2003, invading Iraq. But it's also Barack Obama in 2011, attacking Libya. For weeks, President Obama had been wary of military action. What obviously changed his mind was the fear that Moammar Gadhafi was bent on mass slaughter—which stemmed from Gadhafi's March 17 speech vowing "no mercy" for his enemies. In his March 26 radio address, Obama said the United States acted because Gadhafi threatened "a bloodbath." Two days later,...

Whether you support the overthrow of Dictator Maummar Gaddafi or not, the administration's handling of the situation cannot be described other than horrendous. First, according to critics, the President dithered for over a month on what to do in Libya. He waited for the Arab League to act, then the United Nations... Now, according to the President, the War Powers Act allows the President, at least in the short term, to order the attack, bombing, or infiltration of a foreign country without even notifying Congress, let alone waiting for their approval. That is a nice line and all, but apparently...

Obama is scheduled to speak at the National Defense University at Ft. McNair in Washington, D.C. about Libya at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

The Obama Administration's penchant for ignoring the US Constitution is, once again, on display. On several occasions here at IntellectualConservative, both as a poster to commentary and as an author of said commentary I have questioned the President's allegiance to both the rule of law and the US Constitution. Just last week, the latest intentional disregard of that document was again on display for all to see. March 17th of 2011, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 demanding an immediate cease fire in Libya. The resolution also demanded that Col. Qadhafi relinquish all gains his Army had earned since...

President Obama used his weekly radio address to discuss U.S. participation in enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya. Stressing the stressed the limited nature of the U.S. commitment the “clear and focused” goals defining it, Obama still defended the need for American intervention: “The United States should not—and cannot—intervene every time there is a crisis somewhere in the world. But I firmly believe that when innocent people are being brutalized; when someone like Qaddafi threatens a bloodbath that could destabilize an entire region; and when the international community is prepared to come together to save many thousands of lives—then it’s...

Huh? Ki·net·ic: 1: of or relating to the motion of material bodies and the forces and energy associated therewith. 2: active, lively, dynamic, energizing - a kinetic performer. 3: of or relating to kinetic art. From the moment the Tomahawks began to fly, the Obama White House has been asked THE question: Are we fighting a war in Libya? From military officials to administration spokesmen to the Commander-in-Chief himself, the answer is: “NO.” If it’s not war, what exactly is it then? In typical Obama administration fashion, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes attempted to “clarify” things yesterday: “I think...

WASHINGTON -- Well, it is official. The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has asked the Norwegian Nobel Committee to take back President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize owing to Obama's missile strikes in Libya. The head of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, also has weighed in, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is really in a snit. This is the best news Col. Moammar Gadhafi has had in weeks. President Obama, who ordered airstrikes against Libya and then took his wife and the girls on a sightseeing and official junket to South America, probably took little note of the...

It’s debatable whether President Obama had the constitutional authority to launch a war against a foreign power without Congressional approval. . . Der Spiegel calls it “a coalition of the unwilling.” Terrific. “Who’s in charge here?” isn’t exactly the question you want to hear after launching a war. But “How do we get out of here?” isn’t either. . .