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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Leading from Behind Congress

I suspect President Obama just telegraphed his intention to do as little as possible in reaction to the jihadi offensive in Iraq.

The President admits the Iraq War has not been responsibly ended:

Today, consistent with the War Powers Resolution, the President transmitted a report notifying the Congress that up to approximately 275 U.S. military personnel are deploying to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

That's interesting. The president considers sending 275 troops to secure our embassy as qualifying under the War Powers Resolution for reporting to Congress.

By contrast, American forces waged war at President Obama's orders for many months against Khadaffi of Libya until the dictator was killed and his government overthrown without considering that extended military campaign a war that should be reported to Congress:

In contending that the limited American role did not oblige the administration to ask for authorization under the War Powers Resolution, the report asserted that “U.S. operations do not involve sustained fighting or active exchanges of fire with hostile forces, nor do they involve U.S. ground troops.” Still, the White House acknowledged, the operation has cost the Pentagon $716 million in its first two months and will have cost $1.1 billion by September at the current scale of operations.

I suspect this report was made to congress in order to undermine the president's ability to intervene in Iraq by punting responsibility to Congress, like the administration did after Assad crossed the "red line" that President Obama drew over chemical weapons use against civilians.