This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Constitution lays the power to declare war at the feet of Congress, not the president. Yet, nearly 90 days after President Obama committed U.S. forces to aerial operations in Libya, the president has not sought congressional approval. That is unacceptable.
Presidents must not be allowed to launch wars on their own, except in extraordinary circumstances where the United States is under attack or direct, imminent threat. Libya is not such a case.
Fortunately, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has joined several of his colleagues in calling the president to account. Lee, a Republican, is a co-sponsor of a bipartisan resolution introduced by Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., that would require the president to seek congressional authorization for continued operations in Libya and would bar the United States from sending ground forces there except to rescue a member of the U.S. armed forces from imminent danger.
Sen. Lee argues that the president should provide a detailed justification of U.S. operations in Libya, and the Congress should debate the issue expeditiously. We wholeheartedly agree.
President Obama made a grievous mistake in March. He plunged the United States into a war by joining NATO to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya to protect civilians from the fighting to oust the government of Moammar Gadhafi there. The president argued that he did that to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. He did so under the cover of a U.N. Security Council resolution, but that does not absolve him of his constitutional responsibility to seek authorization from Congress, particularly for continued operations.
The U.N. scheme to protect Libyan civilians with defensive air power alone was half-baked from the outset. It quickly morphed into an offensive NATO air campaign against the Gadhafi regime and its forces which continues to this day. This operation should not be allowed without a full debate in Congress on its goals and how they affect the national security interests of the United States. Nor should the president be allowed to spend public funds on this war without explicit congressional approval.
As a practical matter, air power alone has rarely proved decisive in defeating an incumbent regime. This reality raises the possibility that foreign ground troops may be necessary to defeat Gadhafi. Regardless, those forces should not be U.S. soldiers.
Sen. Lee is right about the war powers issue. The rest of Utah's congressional delegation should join him.