Oh, let's have another war: that seems to be what the Obama Administration is thinking re: Libya

This sounds like a bad joke turned into a bad dream: Ewen MacAskill et al, Libya crisis: Britain, France and US line up for airstrikes against Gaddafi Guardian 03/17/2011.

Do we not even go through the motions any more of having Congress authorize a new war? Of course, Congress voted a war authorized for Iraq in October 2002 that had two conditions, both of which the Cheney-Bush Administration violated with their actual invasion just over eight years ago, now. But Congress didn't hold impeachment hearings. Or even pass one a proverbial "strongly-worded" resolution criticizing them for it. If Congress is unwilling to uphold their Constitutional authority on something so critically important, they've effectively erased it from the Constitution.

When members of the House were reading the Constitution on the floor a couple of months ago, did they all sleep through the part about only Congress having the right to declare war? Nothing in the UN Treaty overrides that Constitutional requirement. The UN Security Council can authorize other countries to engage in war, making it legal in international law. But they can't require another country to initiate a war.

Not that we should let the UN Security Council off the hook. Every member of the Security Council should uphold the principle against international aggression. Eliminating "aggressive war" was the main purpose of creating the organization in the first place.

This is bad news.

Tags: libya

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