Dangerous Precedents

I said it months ago - allowing the President to ignore Congress and unilaterally go to war with Libya unchecked, unquestioned and unpunished was setting a horrible precedent.  I said that once a President grabs a bit of power, and the Congress lets it go, he will never relinquish it.  I said that if he does it once, he will do it again, and again, and again.

I have been proven right - Obama has sent ground forces into Africa to fight against the Lord's Resistance Army.  He has ordered combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa. It is yet another war he has started, for which the Congress will hassle him very little, if at all.  It's Libya all over again.

It was illegal when Obama invaded Libya; after 60 days the Congress made a halfhearted effort to force him to explain himself.  He responded by insisting what he did was legal and thanking the Congress for supporting his actions.  He broke the law by attacking them - he broke the law by not getting Congress' approval for continued aggressions.  And now he's doing it again, almost word for word, he still insists what he does is legal.  This time he says it is within his Constitutional authority!  He finishes up by telling the Congress that he "appreciates their support."

First of all, the United States does not go to war without the Congress declaring the war.  It is very explicitly laid out in the Constitution - the power to declare wars lies solely with the Congress, not the President!  This is a fundamentally important part of the separation of powers that the founders set up to protect us from despotism.  Even the War Powers Resolution, which grants far more authority to the President, is limited to defensive actions!

Yet our President now exercises the authority - with regularity - to start aggressive wars against nations that have done us no harm.  He sits in his high throne and sends our fathers, brothers, and sons off to fight wars of his choosing.  He bypasses the courts and declares citizens dead men walking.  The Congress does virtually nothing to stop it - the few who band together to try are labelled as crackpots and attacked as "unpatriotic."

We're on the road to ruin folks, and let me tell you that I for one don't think there's any way back.  I think it has gone too far, and within the next decade, perhaps two, we will see a full fledged dictator take control.