The House votes against the war in Libya, but votes to fund it anyway
Today was an interesting–albeit contradictory–day in the Congress. The House voted against giving the president the authority to continue the war in Libya by a vote of 295-123, with 70 Democrats voting against the war. But this resolution has no teeth and the war in Libya will continue. The Congress did vote on a resolution which did have teeth–defunding the war effort–but that vote failed.
Here is what Dennis Kucinich had to say about today’s vote against the president:
“Congress today voted overwhelmingly against authorizing the war,” said Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat who has led anti-war forces in the House
The Congress overwhelmingly voted against authorizing the war yet they voted to continue funding the war. While they voted against the war, they are still enabling the president to fight the war, so in reality what good did these votes do? By voting to fund the war they, in effect, voted to overturn their previous disapproval of the war and in fact voted in favor of continuing the war.
This has all the makings of political posturing. The House members were able to vote on these two bills in order to get their votes on record for the upcoming election, but nothing is going to change. These members were able to vote on these two resolutions in a manner which would be politically expedient to them while at the same time allowing the war to rage on. If the Congress was serious in their opposition to the war in Libya they would have voted to defund the war, but they did not do so. They are trying to play both sides of the fence and they do not feel as if the American people are smart enough to see their duplicity.
The Congress claims to oppose the president on this issue, but they did not have the balls to do anything about it. Barack Obama is in violation of the War Powers Act with his ludicrous claim that bombing a sovereign nation with the goal of removing that country’s leader does not constitute hostilities, and the Congress claims they are offended by this explanation, but when push came to shove they didn’t do anything about it.
Barack Obama needs to step before the Congress and explain to the American people why he is justified in conducting a war against Libya without the approval of the Congress, and the Congress had the opportunity to force the president’s hand but they punted on this issue.
America's Watchtower 
You have a few things confused, first and foremost the assertion that we are “bombing” Libya, which we are not. Drones are being used to moniter Libyan movements and guide airstrikes by the French military. The second point is that our role in Libya is not to remove the country’s leader. We are there preventing hostilities against civillians as part of a clearly defined U.N. resolution enforced by N.A.T.O. I do agree, though, that Obama needs to step up to Congress and he should have done this much earlier.
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You are right, we are not actully the ones “bombing” Libya but we are providing support for the bombing. We are making the bombings possible so there is very little difference–if any–between the US and the French when it comes to the responsibility of the bombing. And make no mistake about it, while we are claiming the goal is not the removal of Ghadaffi, those bombs aren’t falling on and around his complex by mistake.
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This President is so arrogant and selfish that his actions don’t surprise me. What has the voting American public allowed to sit in our highest office? He is doing nothing to save our economy and everything to destroy it! Where is his decent morality?
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Nothing surprises me from this man any more, he as been a disaster.
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One of the reasons some of House members give for voting against the resolution to defund Libya is that this resolution only denies the use of appropriated funds in Libya, but thus far no funds have been appropriated, and that has not stopped any of the hostilities in Libya in the last four months. Another troubling aspect of the funding resolution is the list of exceptions to the resolution, because these are precisely the actions being undertaken right now: intelligence gathering, surveillance, refueling, search and rescue and operations planning. So in effect, the current operations in Libya would not be affected, and this resolution would then in a way condone these actions because they are the exception. Ron Paul addressed this very thing on the House floor today.
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That is interesting info and it appears as if there is nothing we can do to stop the president from doing what he wants over there.
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Like a parent who says, “no, you can’t buy that” and gives his kid the money for it anyway, actions speak louder than words, especially empty words.
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And they have given Obama approal by refusing to do anything about it.
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