[ 2011-06-25 ]

US lawmakers rebuke Obama over Libya
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The war-weary US House of
Representatives delivered a harsh, symbolic rebuke
to President Barack Obama over the conflict in
Libya but beat back efforts to cut funds for
direct US air strikes.

The mixed result showed that lawmakers generally
united in criticizing Obama's decision to do
without congressional permission still lacked a
coherent approach to force the president to change
course.

By a crushing 295-123 margin that included 70 of
Obama's Democratic allies, the House first
rejected a resolution authorizing the use of
military force as part of a NATO-led campaign
against Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi's regime.

"We don't have enough wars going on? The war in
Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, we need one more
war?" thundered Democratic Representative Dennis
Kucinich, who has played a leading role in
opposing the US role in Libya.

"This war is a distraction. Our flailing economy
demands the full attention of Congress and the
president," he said, as the House defied a
last-ditch appeal from US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and a warning from NATO's chief.

It was the first time that the House rejected
authorizing US military action since April 1999,
when it repudiated then-president Bill Clinton's
air campaign against Serbia in the conflict over
Kosovo.

Lawmakers later voted 238-180 to beat back a
Republican-led plan to cut funds for direct
strikes on Libya but allow operations in support
of NATO, a surprise outcome wrought by warnings
that this amounted to a green light in all but
name.

"Let's not enter a war through the back door when
we have already decided not to enter it through
the front," said Representative Tom McClintock,
one of 89 Republicans to vote against the
measure.

"You can't have it both ways," scolded
Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the
House Armed Services Committee, who voted in favor
of Obama's approach both times.

"You can't say 'we would like to remove Kadhafi,
we'd like to support the Libyan people, but we're
going to offer up resolutions that are going to
stop that from happening," he said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made a
rare in-person plea for support from Democrats in
a closed-door session on Thursday, said the second
vote showed bipartisan support for pursuing
Obama's strategy.

"We have a plan that we are executing for
achieving our mission in Libya. It is on track and
we need to see it through. Time and history are on
our side but only if we sustain the pressure," she
told reporters.

But a Republican leadership aide warned the
administration "should not be heartened by this,
they should be worried" because the funding
measure went down to defeat over concerns it
effectively authorized Obama's approach.

And lawmakers presented a near-unified front of
criticism against Obama's failure to get
permission from Congress within a 60-day window
set by the 1973 War Powers Act -- a law routinely
ignored by US presidents -- and noted the US
Constitution reserves the right to declare war to
the legislature.

"It didn't have to come to this," said Republican
House Speaker John Boehner, who charged Obama
"failed to fulfill his obligations" to get the
go-ahead from lawmakers and lay out the goal and
likely duration and costs of the conflict.

"The president is becoming an absolute monarch,
and we must put a stop to that right now if we
don't want to become an empire instead of a
republic," said Democratic Representative Jerrold
Nadler.

But Democratic House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer,
who called the Kosovo vote "one of the darkest
days" of his time in office, warned lawmakers
risked straining Washington's ties overseas.

"The message will go to Moamer Kadhafi, the
message will go to our NATO allies, the message
will go to every nation of the world that America
does not keep faith with its allies," he said.

The Republican compromise would have cut off
direct combat like drone strikes and bombings but
allowed operations in support of NATO, like aerial
refueling, intelligence, surveillance,
reconnaissance, planning, or search and rescue.

The United States joined Britain and France in
attacking Kadhafi's forces on March 19 in a
UN-authorized mission to protect civilians as the
regime attempted to crush an uprising sparked by
the regional "Arab Spring."

The United States withdrew into a supporting role
when NATO took command of the mission on March 31.

Source - AFP

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