Congress, International, Military, Politics, Society

Missiles Away! Obama Commits U.S. To Third Military Campaign

At a time when the American people overwhelmingly oppose our continued military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, President Obama has responded by committing the United States to another war. Today, the U.S. attacked Libyan forces with over a hundred cruise missiles hitting the capitol and surrounding areas. With the two wars already draining the United States of billions a day, these cruise missile attacks alone will cost hundreds of millions in both the equipment and commitment of forces.

While we go to war against Libya for its crackdown on democratic reformers and protesters, the United States continues to support its allies like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (which have unleashed tanks on protesters). What is the principled line determining when we go to war to support protesters or reformers? Will the same line apply to our allies?

Here is what Obama has stated today: ”Today we are part of a broad coalition. We are answering the calls of a threatened people. And we are acting in the interests of the United States and the world . . .”

We are now going to war in a country which seems to be experiencing a civil war. It is also a country that greeted the mastermind of the PanAm terrorist attack as a national hero. Finally, we are once again going to war without a declaration of war. While the Framers were quite clear about the need for a declaration, we are once again simply circumventing that inconvenient principle. The same Democrats who insisted that they were misled in using a resolution to start the Iraq War are again standing silent in the face of another President committing this country to war without a declaration. I consider bombing the capitol city of a nation to be an act of war.

I seriously doubt that the majority of Americans are opposed to the other two wars but would want to go fight in Libya.

While we are clearly not committing to a ground conflict, this is a move that is clearly opposed to the public’s desire to end this foreign military entanglements — and not to add new ones. The political disconnect over these wars is both distressing and dangerous for a system that, while a representative democracy, is still based on the notion of responsiveness to the voters.

Source: CNN

180 thoughts on “Missiles Away! Obama Commits U.S. To Third Military Campaign”

  1. Has things happen all to fast. and all to strange for all this not to throw up some red flags. spontanis revolutions in multible nations. organized at that. people ready for a civil war? as if they knew help would come. resolution from the UN !!!!! to go to war in record time. JUST to STRANGE for me.
    What is happing. think about it.

  2. Phil Ochs is lucky to be dead, he’d probably be in Gitmo for this sort of thing today:
    Come, get out of the way, boys
    Quick, get out of the way
    You’d better watch what you say, boys
    Better watch what you say
    We’ve rammed in your harbor and tied to your port
    And our pistols are hungry and our tempers are short
    So bring your daughters around to the port
    ‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
    We’re the Cops of the World
    We pick and choose as please, boys
    Pick and choose as please
    You’d best get down on your knees, boys
    Best get down on your knees
    We’re hairy and horny and ready to shack
    And we don’t care if you’re yellow or black
    Just take off your clothes and lay down on your back
    ‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
    We’re the Cops of the World
    Our boots are needing a shine, boys
    Boots are needing a shine
    But our Coca-Cola is fine, boys
    Coca-Cola is fine
    We’ve got to protect all our citizens fair
    So we’ll send a battalion for everyone there
    And maybe we’ll leave in a couple of years
    ‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
    We’re the Cops of the World
    And dump the reds in a pile, boys
    Dump the reds in a pile
    You’d better wipe off that smile, boys
    Better wipe off that smile
    We’ll spit through the streets of the cities we wreck
    And we’ll find you a leader that you can’t elect
    Those treaties we signed were a pain in the neck
    ‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
    We’re the Cops of the World
    And clean the johns with a rag, boys
    Clean the johns with a rag
    If you like you can use your flag, boys
    If you like you can use your flag
    We’ve got too much money we’re looking for toys
    And guns will be guns and boys will be boys
    But we’ll gladly pay for all we destroy
    ‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
    We’re the Cops of the World
    Please stay off of the grass, boys
    Please stay off of the grass
    Here’s a kick in the ass, boys
    Here’s a kick in the ass
    We’ll smash down your doors, we don’t bother to knock
    We’ve done it before, so why all the shock
    We’re the biggest and the toughest kids on the block
    And we’re the Cops of the World, boys
    We’re the Cops of the World
    And when we butchered your sons, boys
    When we butchered your sons
    Have a stick of our gum, boys
    Have a stick of our bubble gum
    We own half the world, oh say can you see
    And the name for our profits is democracy
    So, like it or not, you will have to be free
    ‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
    We’re the Cops of the World

  3. Jeff – it might have been the right thing to do a week ago, its way late now & is going to increase the death toll.

    We have spent a lot of time & money building up the military of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and several other despots. They could easily have handled this assclown if it was so damn important to them. Well, except for our beloved friends the Saudis – they were busy killing people closer to home.

  4. Unfortunately, foreign policy crises do not schedule themselves to happen at times when one can best handle them. Quite the opposite, in fact. While we are stretched thin, the crisis in Libya does require a US response. The American people may not want another war right now, and understandably so, but the federal government’s job is to protect the American people from predators both foreign and domestic. To do so it oftenmyst yse information and resources to which the American people are not and cannot be privy. The best way to do that is to intervene in Libya right now for relatively cheap, instead of not doing so and, in so not doing, paying a much larger price later.

    I’m no fan of Obama but intervening in Libya against Gadhafi us the right thing to do.

  5. For a lot of different reasons voters saw what they wanted to see in Obama. In some very real respects he’s no different than Bush on foreign policy.
    That said ultimately the fault lies with the American people. Something is wrong with the system if no matter who you vote for, you get war.

    I wonder if Obama feels that he has to overcompensate to show that he’s not “palin’ around with terrorists”. This action against Libya is truly hypocritical and disgusting, especially when you consider what the ruler of Yemen just did.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/8392796/Yemen-protests-Evidence-snipers-shot-to-kill.html

  6. Here is what Obama said yesterday:

    “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.” — Obama the Senator

  7. Swarthmore Mom

    Great link! The next to last paragraph says it all.

    “Gates is clearly not on board with what’s going on and now the Defense Department may have an entirely another war on its hands that he’s not into,” said Clemons. “Clinton won the bureaucratic battle to use DOD resources to achieve what’s essentially the State Department’s objective… and Obama let it happen.”

    HenMan

    That’s the M.O. These little forays seem to be getting closer and closer together, don’t they. That War Powers Act needs to be repealed before anything else.

  11. Bob,
    I am using my daughters computer as we baby sit our grandsons, but if I remember correctly, you are right about the 60 day time frame. Was there any requirement of potential harm to us or our interests in the resolution? If the boys get to sleep without a fuss, I will look it up.

  12. That about sums it up HenMan! I seem to remember that the cruise missles are about 1-2 million apiece multiplied by 112. I am not good at math, but could be 224 Million in a matter of minutes just thrown at the Libya problem. We could sure use that money here in Illinois!
    I hope that all American and allied pilots are safe. I also hope that Ghadafi is taken out of the picture quickly and that we do not send any troops in. Aren’t 2 wars enough?

  13. We have to get rid of our nuclear waste-depleted Uranium- somewhere!
    It keeps piling up here…..

  15. 1. Cruise missle attack.
    2. Airstrikes by U.S. aircraft carrier planes.
    3. American plane shot down.
    4. Grainy tape of captured American pilot with bruised face.
    5. General outrage in America.
    6. Republican demands for invasion.
    7. Compliant bi-partisan President seeking re-election orders Marine Corps landing for peacekeeping purposes.
    8. Etc., Etc., Etc.

  16. Oh yes, the Presidential right of passage … every President has to have a war he can call his own … how else to prove his manhood? I wonder how many American soldiers will have to die in order for Obama to feel like he’s manned-up.

    (Bush needed two, but then, well … he had some serious daddy-is-a-better-man-than-me issues)

    CIA wins again.

  17. Query: Wouldn’t the bombing of Lybia be legal if Obama limited the engagement to 60 days under the War Powers Resolution of 1973?

  19. “Finally, we are once again going to war without a declaration of war. While the Framers were quite clear about the need for a declaration, we are once again simply circumventing that inconvenient principle. The same Democrats who insisted that they were misled in using a resolution to start the Iraq War are again standing silent in the face of another President committing this country to war without a declaration. I consider bombing the capitol city of a nation to be an act of war.”

    In the words of Joliet Jake Blues…

    Jake: YES! YES! JESUS H. TAP-DANCING CHRIST… I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!

  20. Just as predicted.

    There’s a lot of evidence that Obama is as much a warmongering president as his predecessor…

    Perhaps for Libya we will hear arguments that “humanitarian” interests and regional stability necessitate a war. I have little doubt that the US (under the guise of the UN) will order and participate in the no-fly action, eventually leading to US troops on the ground. Ultimately, of course, we’ll wind up in the middle of a war between age-old factions within Libya, just as we did in Iraq.

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