Obama and Executive Power

Supported by a UN resolution and urged on by Britain and France, President Obama authorized US missile attacks on Libya this week. After an initial surge of success, rebel forces fell back before a vicious and well-organized attack from the Libyan army, which remains loyal to Qaddafi. Obama said "The people of Libya must be protected, and in the absence of an immediate end to the violence against civilians our coalition is prepared to act, and to act with urgency." The initial plan, though, was to limit outside military intervention to the enforcement of a no-fly zone, but that idea gave way to more aggressive tactics for reasons never made entirely clear.

None of this is constitutional, of course. Far from being consulted on the question of US military involvement, Congress is on vacation this week and was not asked to return to Washington. Qadaffi poses no immediate threat to American security, and has been dormant as an indirect threat for at least fifteen years before two weeks ago. As a result, Obama was required by Article I section 8 and Article II section 2 to ask for Congressional authorization before he engaged US forces, even in the form of pilots.

The situation poses interesting political challenges. Democrats who opposed the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it was a power grab now must consider their own integrity in this matter. To his credit, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, for example, has made it clear that he does not like the president's behavior. On MSNBC the other day, he said

We have a military operation that's been put into play, but we do not have a clear diplomatic policy or a clear statement of foreign policy that is accompanying this military operation... We know we don't like the Gadhafi regime, but we do not have a clear picture of who the opposition movement really is. I’ve asked this repeatedly to State Department including Secretary Clinton in the last couple of weeks.

In contrast, Republicans would prefer to use the sitiuation against Obama, but are having a hard time figuring out how to stand behind the bizarre defense of executive power form people like John Yoo while opposing this action. (See The National Review, especially.)

I don't know whether outside military intervention is a good idea here; I don't want to see a crazy man like Qaddafi kill his own people, but the fact is that they picked a fight and they may have to finish it on their own. I do know that if the US is going to be involved, Congress has to have a role in the decision.