This morning, the House of Representatives is debating a pair of pro-war resolutions surrounding the war in Libya, with the first vote echoing the McCain/Kerry “one year authorization” bill in the Senate and the other masquerading as the antiwar choice.
While the first bill is comparatively straightforward and lets the president do basically as he wishes for one year, the second bill is presented as “limiting” the use of funds for the war with a number of exceptions. Those “exceptions,” officials agree, are de facto authorizations to do all of those things.
Those exceptions are “search and rescue,” “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” “aerial refueling,” and “operational planning,” which encompasses virtually the whole of President Obama’s current actions in the nation.
Rep. Ron Paul (R – TX) urged members to oppose both bills. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D – OH) offered tepid support for the second vote, but called for another resolution in July that would defund the rest of the conflict.
House Speaker John Boehner (R – OH) has already said he believes that the House will refuse to authorize the war, by which of course he means the first vote. The second bill appears to be every bit the authorization that the first one is, however, and seems to be poised to pass.
Congress is about to cave on presidential usurpation of its warmaking power again. The "debate" about US intervention in the Libyan civil war was a sham meant to bamboozle the sheeple. It would be better for Congress to do nothing rather than pass any of these two resolutions which ratify Obomba's decision to unilaterally involve the United States in a civil war that is none of our business.