The White House is now one week late in abiding by the War Powers Resolution, a Vietnam-era law requiring the president to obtain congressional approval for any military operation lasting more than 60 days. Without such approval, the operation is supposed to cease.
This choice is not merely a preference expressed by Congress in 1973. It’s the law of the land — a law clearly in accord with the U.S. Constitution, which bestows war-making powers on Congress, not the president.
And yet our military operations in Libya continue without any congressional authorization, in defiance of that mandate.
Moreover, Congress appears unwilling to confront the president over this neglect of the War Powers act. As The Washington Post reported Thursday, “Republican and Democratic leaders, who agree on little else, seem united in their desire to not say much about the War Powers Resolution.”
If the House and Senate don’t have the spine to stand up for their constitutional role, however, then they should at least pass resolutions as quickly as possible in support of intervention. If they don’t, they will be shirking one of their most important responsibilities.
We say this as critics of the Libyan intervention who suspected from the outset that it would evolve into something far more extensive than merely protecting beleaguered civilians from attacks by the troops of Moammar Khadafy. And sure enough, the U.S. has since committed itself to persevering until the Khadafy regime is overthrown and, by implication, an acceptable alternative has taken its place.
Just this week in Britain, President Obama warned that NATO operations in Libya could take a long time. Those operations involve “a slow, steady process in which we’re able to wear down the regime forces and change the political calculations of the Khadafy regime to the point where they finally realize they’re not going to control this country,” the president said.
So what happened to the limited engagement that the president spoke of in March? France and Britain may be taking the lead in Libya, but according to The Washington Post, “American aircraft account for about a quarter of the roughly 150 missions flown each day by NATO forces.” That’s a serious commitment for what could turn into a long military slog.
It’s always possible, of course, that the regime will crack in fairly short order and Libya will not turn into yet another military quagmire for the U.S. One possibly favorable sign: The Los Angeles Times reports that the Libyan dictator’s aides have floated the idea of Khadafy remaining as a figurehead during a transition to democracy.
Such a proposal suggests one of two things: growing desperation on the part of the Libyan government or a regime absurdly out of touch with political reality.
If desperation is the cause, then Khadafy’s days as ruler may be running out. But a regime simply out of touch with reality may be willing to fight to the final bunker — in a war, let’s remember, that will be illegal every day that the U.S. Congress refuses to sign off on it.
