President Obama injected the U.S. military into Libya’s civil war without ever seeking congressional approval, or leading a public debate. To square this clearly illegal action with the law and his previous statements about presidential war powers, his lawyers (who, like Obama, had fiercely attacked Bush’s overreaches on war) argued that our air strikes in Libya did not count as “hostilities” as defined by the law.
Today, it looks like the rebels we’ve backed have succeeded in deposing Moammar Gadhafi, (which, you’ll remember, was not the aim of our intervention). Setting aside the questions of the U.S.’s role in nation-building and peacekeeping, should we now forget about the fact that our President illegally launched us into a war?
Recommended Stories
Print subscriber? Click here to login/register your account
Digital subscriber? Click here to login/register your account.