1. Some usual suspects, like Ron Paul and Richard Lugar, and some unusual, like Andrew McCarthy, are moaning that President Obama’s intervention in Libya is unconstitutional. The complaint, meritorious or not, seems rather premature. Our forces have yet to fire a shot, and the President’s statement yesterday (see the post below) more than hints that they never will:
We will provide the unique capabilities that we can bring to bear to stop the violence against civilians, including enabling our European allies and Arab partners to effectively enforce a no fly zone. [emphasis added]
But suppose that we do something more forceful than jam Iraqi radar and share satellite photos. If the Constitution requires Congressional authorization of this use of military force, the War Powers Resolution prescribes how the President is to obtain it: He is to notify Congress with 48 hours after initiating action, and fighting can continue for up to 90 days while he waits for Congressional concurrence.
Assuming that the War Powers Resolution is constitutional, the President has yet to take a half-step toward violating its requirements. If it’s unconstitutional, as every President from Richard Nixon through at least George W. Bush (including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton) insisted, there’s even less of an issue.
2. Not that legal conundrums seem likely to matter. Yesterday, Qaddhafi’s troops were 30 miles from Benghazi. Today:
Shooting erupted in central Benghazi Saturday morning, and rebel gunmen said they were fighting an advance by Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s forces into the heart of the rebel capital from the university on the southern approaches.
Grad missiles pounded the city and a fighter jet went down in flames in central Benghazi, sending up thick plumes of smoke.
Rebels mounted makeshift street barricades, but the advance of Col Gadhafi’s forces sent many of them fleeing. A reporter witnessed heavy exchanges of gunfire just one kilometer away from the city’s Ouzo hotel.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton will hold an urgent meeting with allied foreign ministers, and President Obama flies to Brazil.
3. A friend who works for a Congressman had dinner last week with Libya’s former ambassador to the U.S., the one who resigned and cast his lot with the rebels. The name of Sayyid Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi (or at least part of it) came up, the man who was once King of Libya (1951–1983). The ambassador says that the Libyan public despises Idris’s memory – because he didn’t fight hard enough against Gaddhafi’s insurrection. The king’s heir, my friend adds, lives in the U.S. and, while not aspiring to reestablish the monarchy, has declared his support for what he calls “the counter-revolution”.
United States confronted Libya over the weekend, the public finances faces rising military cost, thus impacting current and future budget plans. Already, according to National Journal, the price tag on combating against Libya on the first day of strike tallied around $112 million to $168 million; this outlay largely came from more than 100 tomahawks being launched.
Posted by: Atlanta Roofing | Monday, March 21, 2011 at 08:31 PM