Candidate Obama: “the president does not have power under the constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack”

  Before I get into the substance of this post let me first state that I support the removal of Gadhafi as dictator as Libya. I think that it is long overdue and should have been done years ago; this man has sponsored terrorism against United States citizens and is duplicitous in the murders of American citizens. My problem with this action in Libya stems from the fact that Barack Obama sought the permission of the United Nations instead of the United States Congress, and my posts on this issue have dealt with that position as well as the apparent hypocrisy of some on the left who support this “Bush Doctrine” type action when they opposed the invasion of Iraq for the reason I stated above, not with the issue of whether we should be doing what we are doing in Libya.

  Back in 2007–while still a candidate for the presidency–Barack Obama was asked a question when it was feared that the United States was going to attack Iran. That question was this: Under what circumstances the president would have the constitutional authority to bomb Iran without first seeking authorization from Congress?

  His answer was quite telling:

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

As Commander-in-Chief, the President does have a duty to protect and defend the United States,” Obama continued. “In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the Legislative branch

  Basically, he stated that if there were an imminent threat to the security of the United States that the constitution granted the president the authority to act first and seek approval later, and in this he is 100% correct. He also stated that the president cannot order a military attack without the approval of the Congress if a threat to the United States was not imminent. Again he was 100% correct with this statement.

  While Gadhafi is a despicable human being who has killed Americans in the past, he posed no imminent theat to America. It is true that he has been slaughtering his own people while engaged in a civil war in his country, but he posed no immediate threat to the United States of America and yet Barack Obama did exactly what he claimed in 2007 the president did not have the authority to do–he acted unilaterally without the consent of the Congress on an issue in which an imminent threat against the United States did not exist.

  Barack Obama sought the permission of the United Nations before he engaged in the support of the implementation of a no-fly zone over Libya, and once that permission was granted the United States began a military engagement with that country, yet there was no national defense issue and Barack Obama still did not feel as if he had to seek the approval of the Congress even though he had ample time to do so as he waited for approval from the United Nations–a clear reversal of the position he held while running for president.

  I find it quite telling the Barack Obama thought that it was more important to seek the permission of the United Nations before he acted on Libya than he did in seeking the permission of the United States Congress. And I find it equally as telling that he felt so obligated to do what the United Nations told him to do. He is claiming that this is a humanitarian issue and that the United States was morally right to attack Libya in order to halt the slaughter of innocent lives, and while that might be an honorable position to hold that does not mean that the president has the right to ignore the Congress when we have no vested interest in the conflict.

  Barack Obama–and the United States–has become subservient to the United Nations and we are losing our sovereignty as we speak, and that is exactly the way that Barack Obama wants it.

  The media is ignoring this aspect to the story and we all know that if the president was not a Democrat that the media would be asking the same questions that many bloggers are, yet Barack Obama gets a free pass on this issue in the media. But he is not getting the same free pass in the Congress–many liberal Democrats in the Congress are beginning to ask questions about this as well, and one has to wonder if the media can continue to ignore this as the fissure continues to grow between the liberal wing of the Democrat party and the president himself. (And as the fissure between Barack Obama the candidate and Barack Obama the president continues to grow also.)