NOTABLE VIEWS ON THE LEGALITY OF THE WAR: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” Candidate Barack Obama, December, 2007 “[T}he war is illegal under the United States Constitution and our War Powers Act, because only the US Congress has the authority to declare war and the president has been unable to show that the US faced an imminent threat from Libya. The president even ignored his top legal advisers at the Pentagon and the department of justice who insisted he needed congressional approval before bombing Libya.” Congressman Dennis Kucinich “Perhaps the greatest harm to humanity will be the long-term effects on international affairs from the use of force in a manner that is outside of the allowed exceptions of international law. In the Pact of Paris in 1928 and again in the UN Charter in 1945, States agreed not to use force against each other to accomplish their foreign policy ends. The Western world has appeared to repeatedly challenge this agreement in the last ten years, especially by its willingness to take military action against predominately Muslim States. In doing so they have sent an undeniable signal to the international community through their actions and despite some of their words, that international law does not matter to them. If this message is not answered by the proponents of international law then the advances we have made to ensure that the international community respects the rule of law may be undone for future generations.” Curtis Doebbler, JURIST Forum “The legal machinations Mr. Obama has used to justify war without Congressional consent set a troubling precedent that could allow future administrations to wage war at their convenience—free of legislative checks and balances.” Bruce Ackerman, Professor of Law, Yale “Obama’s Unconstitutional War,” Foreign Policy “It was equally clear from the start that this Orwellian-named ‘kinetic humanitarian action’ was, in fact, a ‘war’ in every sense, including the Constitutional sense, but that’s especially undeniable now. While the President, in his after-the-fact speech justifying the war, pledged that ‘broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake,’ it is now clear that is exactly what is happening.” Glenn Greenwald, “The Illegal War in Libya,” Salon
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 11:09:22 +0000
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