Obama's illegal war in Libya

Today is the day — for 60 days, US forces have been engaged in the action in Libya. President Obama did not seek Congressional approval, and as the 60 War Powers Act limit is reached, shows no sign of doing so. Senate majority leader Harry Reid doesn’t seem to care:

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested no urgency to force the president to comply with the War Powers Act when it comes to Libya.

“The administration has done a good job of keeping Congress informed about operations in Libya. U.S. operations appear to be limited and intermittent, but we are examining whether further Senate action is needed,” said Jon Summers, Reid’s spokesman.

There is a legitimate debate over whether the WPA is constitutional, but presidents have resisted taking that fight on. Well, Republican presidents have resisted it. The previous Democratic president tested it in Kosovo, and the current Democratic president is testing it now, both to fight in conflicts that had no obvious relevance to American interests. You can bet your bottom dollar, though, that if the Libya action had occurred under Bush’s watch, and Sen. Obama had weighed in, the words “illegal war” and even “war crime” would have come up. And Harry Reid would have been among the first to join the chorus.