It is lamentable that the United States is involved in three wars, with no immediate end in sight:
- There’s the war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
- There’s the war in Iraq. It started in 2003 and was based on the belief that dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Subsequent searches did not turn up the weapons, but prior to the war, leaders of both political parties in the United States, as well as leaders of many foreign nations, believed Saddam possessed WMD.
- And there’s the civil war in Libya. It started a few months ago, as rebels attempted to drive dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power. While the United States fortunately does not have ground forces in Libya, President Barack Obama has unwisely intervened in Libya’s civil war by aiding international aerial attacks in that country to help the rebels.
It’s important, however, to point out one respect in which the war in Libya differs from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: The two earlier wars both had congressional approval for the use of U.S. military force. But Obama intervened in the war in Libya without the constitutionally necessary approval of Congress.
While Americans may disagree over whether we should have declared war against Afghanistan and Iraq, at least there was a formal authorization of the use of force. But the president based U.S. involvement in Libya not on an act of Congress but on a mere U.N. resolution.
That is why U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and other members of Congress have been asking the Obama administration for a clear explanation of the intervention in Libya. They deserve thorough answers.
Of course, there is strong agreement both in the United States and abroad that Gadhafi is a tyrant. But there are oppressive leaders all around the world. The United States simply cannot step in and try to remove each of those leaders when they pose no apparent threat to our country nor to U.S. interests. The Obama administration has really not even attempted to claim that Gadhafi is a serious threat to the United States’ security interests.
Neither has there been any satisfactory assurance that the rebels seeking to depose Gadhafi will be an improvement on his regime. Some have committed war crimes, and there are signs of al-Qaida terrorist influence in their ranks.
Is it worth risking replacing one bad regime in Libya with another?
If not, why are we there?