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The U.N. Participation Act. In case you are wondering why Obama would put himself in such political danger concerning the Libya decision, it seems that he may have an obligation to the world to do so.
From the U.S. Code "generated from the most recent official version made available by the US House of Representatives."TITLE 22 > CHAPTER 7 > SUBCHAPTER XVI > § 287d Use of armed forces; limitations (pointed out in an article entitled "A Legal War: The United Nations Participation Act and Libya (updated)" Written by John Whitehouse <http://jenkinsear.com/2011/03/19/a-legal-war-the-united-nations-participation-act-and-libya/>)
"The clear legal authority for actions sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council lies within the United Nations Participation Act….The President shall not be deemed to require the authorization of the Congress to make available to the Security Council on its call in order to take action under article 42 of said Charter and pursuant to such special agreement or agreements the armed forces, facilities, or assistance provided for therein:"
Article 41 The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.
Article 42 Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations.
Article 43 All Members of the United Nations, in order to contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security, undertake to make available to the Security Council, on its call and in accordance with a special agreement or agreements, armed forces, assistance, and facilities, including rights of passage, necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security.
Whitehouse: "What would not be legal according to the law is any escalation beyond what the UN authorized here. So, if you are worried about mission creep, unless the entire Security Council authorizes boots on the ground, it would certainly be illegal."
This is Western Imperialism masked as a humanitarian intervention. What's going on is a "civil war" and the U.S. and NATO intervening is akin to the British Empire intervening on the half of the South during the American Civil War. Libya is a sovereign nation and for better or worse Qaddafi/Ghaddafi is the leader of Libya and I would imagine that he does have the loyalty of a significant segment of that nations population. This is like De Ja Vu when you look at Western/NATO intervention in the civil wars in Bosnia and southern Serbia (Kosovo) in the 90's. The Western intervention in the Balkan wars against the Serbs was largely aimed at weakening Russia's closest ally in the region. Thus diminishing Russia's influence and making way for oil and natural gas pipelines from the Caspian to the Black Sea and finally to the Mediterranean Sea. As for Libya. It has the largest oil reserves in North Africa. That fact alone takes some of the guess work out of the possible motives the U.S., U.K., France and other NATO nations have in meddling in the Libyan civil war.
"If Tom would concentrate on educationing his listeners, as oppose to staring up hipe and assumptions"
I Agree! How much different it would of been if Thom would of put his "Intelligent Hat" on and try to dissect this from what was Obama's thinking on this! Step by painful step. Put yourself in His shoes and see what BETTER solution you would of had. And I bet that at the end of the process it would devolve that this was the Correct way to proceed and you would make the same exact decisions. Try it!
But no - just Knee-Jerk Pontifications! And no one is the wiser and no one has learned anything! If anything we are all just the more ill-informed and clueless.
Thom, suggest that in one of your shows, you do just that. Bet you will even surprise yourself! And maybe in the process inform a lot of people and even help them how to think critically and correctly.
Obama is right on this one.
"The United States has launced tomahawk cruise missiles into a Libya. Do you think Libya considers this an act of war?"
Kadaffy might. But you forget the Libyan People who are RISING AGAINST HIm and who want to CREATE a NEW Government So who is declaring war on whom?
This is also a NATO operation. You know France, England, Italy, United Arab League, etc.
War is not being declared on a Country but we are trying to oust a Dictator - VERY BIG DIFFERENCE!
Everone is being suppressed by US government including American's , whether it be called Debt, jobs, cutting back on safety nets, Why it seems they care so much about you and I just on their behalf , they want to take away seniors social security as a gift. This will be good for their health. I often wonder why we don't see Obama speaking out against such things and to shine the light of hope and to fight against the many dischord going on here in America? . No. He seems to only worry about other coutries doings and their health. Why wasn't Obama shouting and making sense about unions rights? What " He has no time for that now , Time for war, I see-Pullution, contaminating making waste lands , burn everything in the way so it become unfit for use. I guess love is in the air once more " Bombs Away!.
Thom - Amazing how supposed VERY "intelligent people" sometimes get their predictions and comments VERY Wrong! Yourself included. Obama got this one right. And I'll let history be the ultimate judge on this one.
Wonder if you will re-blog this in a more favorable light 6 months from now? If you do, at least we'll know you can re-assess and correct your errors. If you don't I will remind you.
Libya has been a pain in the rumb and the President is doing the correct action. Republicans as much as they love war and war profits will condem this like they did in the Somolia action to gain political points but, they are scum and traitors to the Commander-in-Chief and our men and women in uniform!
President Obama now has the blood of people from three sovereign nations on his hands as well as the blood of our own military. And he is personally responsible for starting this latest war. Based on how Iraq and Afghanistan have gone, do we have the slightest hope that our intervention in Libya will go well? No, we do not.
Congratulations, Mr. Obama: you are the first black man to be president of America. Unfortunately, other than the color of your skin you are exactly the same as the other armchair-hawk, old-money republicans whose own families will never fight in any of the wars that you want our families to fight and die in so your wealthy supporters can steal oil from another country. "Yes, we can." What, were you joking when you said that?
As a Veteran and a graduate of History, I am distraught at the events that are unfolding. We have not declared war, yet our actions have placed us in a 4th War. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Libya. There isn't any other word for it. Our credibility in the Middle East and the world is very suspect. As President Eisenhower feared, we have become a Military Industrial Complex. As a progressive, I believe we should not only put an end to the ongoing wars, but immediately stop the use of Private Security Forces. Although I could spend a great deal of time talking about the Privatisation of far too many Government functions, I can think of none more dangerous than making war a means to achieve profit. Our Armed Forces should be used for Defence only. We need bold progressive leadership in so many things. I can think of none more important than this.
Derrick Jensen - Endgame, have him on for a full hour, atleast!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9os1GFuWJ0
Why even have a constitution including congress when Presidents bomb whomever they want. Just wrong to engage on his own like this. I'm so tired of this.
The United States has launced tomahawk cruise missiles into a Libya. Do you think Libya considers this an act of war? If one country is launching weapons of mass destuction, into another country, this is war. It doesn't matter if the force comes from the ground, sea or air. We are now at war with Libya.
This is not the way to right a wrong when we do not have a direct national interest at stake. We need to stop bombing people. If Americans knew the dictator could bomb us back, they would think twice. Perhaps the sanctions idea makes some sense in this case, but I am sick of us being drawn into extended wars. Let's get out of everywehere else and start caring about building a strong middle class while lifting up the poor. Let's strengthen what safetynets we have left.
Nothing noble about it, Tom. Libya sports the largest oil reserves in Africa. Some are dismissing this assertion by pointing out how little oil we get from them. But the point is CONTROL of the oil, regardless of where it flows. The real goal with the attack on Libya is to ensure installation of a new puppet government for the multi-national oil barons.
I think in this instance intervening is the morally correct thing to do. Each situation is different. It is not Iraq or Afghanistan or even Bahrain. This is not a situation where we are fighting principally to support the greed of the oil companies, as was the case of the travesty in Iraq. The Lybian people first rose up peacefully to demand their "human rights." They were met with ruthless brutality, even going so far, reportedly, as killing injured protesters in the hospitals, shooting their own soldiers in the back when they refused to fire upon their own citizens, and finally bombing and indiscriminately killing their own citizens. They have vowed to go house to house to kill those opposing them. They were hours away from committing an act of genocide against their citizens in Benghazi. It pains me that anyone has to be killed, be they pro or anti-Gadhafi, but I believe a time comes when hard moral choices must be made, as difficult as it is. There are not many instances when we can use our military power to save lives and to protect the actual aspirations of freedom (as opposed to the usual hypocritical use of our power to promote "free markets," at the expense of freedom). I have been bitterly disappointed at times with President Obama's reticence to fight for more progressive ideals and his willingness to compromise too easily. But in this case, I believe it was a courageous decison. The right wing as well as the left wing will surely criticize him, as they already have. I do not think the military was keen on it either. I believe he went into, as a last resort, actually opposing the military, it because it was, if nothing else, the better of two evils.
dianhow> Sorry about your Obama, but he's the one up on that podium as of now. I was not just pointing at Obama . Its about all these warmongers we have had in the passed. Big Money to be made in wars! Yes dianhow , We should tax the war money! " Hats off ! Great Idea! Anyway ~ The use of Depleted Uranium and Nuclear power waste and waste plants with its death gases, its dust particles spreading all over the world polluting rivers, landscapes or i should say our natural environment. Climate warming maybe the first signs of a dying planet. So lets continue bombing what we can and everything will be just great! We need more WAR Like we need a hole in our head!
If the President wants to play with his balls, that's one thing, but side stepping a Congress just after they went to break is wrong. Plan wrong. Congress is clueless and that isn't the way it's supposed to be. If you have one person declaring war, then you have a dictatorship. If I were Congress, I would be change the laws so this BS crap doesn't happen again. I understand about Libya. But instead of the President warning, and warning Gaddafi and given him time to hide, run and get ready to fight back, why couldn't the President have had on the ground a sniper. 1 bullet for under $5.00 and innocent people are spared, the city is spared all the destruction. Obama failed this big time.
I really don't get it. The Whitehouse makes a statement that they are looking for ways to fire up the base. Did anyone tell them, this isn't it. This actually is turning people away from him. He lost my vote when he did "business as usual" and gave the top 2% a tax cut. What he did by not talking to Democrats before making the tax cut deal was wrong and now not talking to Congress about this war was wrong. I'm afraid, Obama is a lose cannon and he needs to go.
Gaddafi knows what happenned in Iraq. Are we really supposed to believe he wants that on his country? I honestly think we are not getting the whole story and there's more going on here. Just look at France. When France is first in line to start voilence, you know they've got to be hiding something.
I have some trust left in Obama. We will be 90% out of this way before Congress comes back from another vacation. This is mostly a Navy operation with no US boots on the ground. As I saw the ship inventory listed in the Med, we don't even have a carrier air group in the area. If we save the freeedom fighters from being massacred, it will be worth the financial cost.
Why is it always the "no democracy at home, crumbling middle class USA", that has to expend more and more lives and money we don't have, anywhere else in the world but here?? On how many (oil) "fronts" are we going to "fight". The """" are for Sharon "boots on" Hale-Jenkins, above, who appears to have found a new usage for the word "war". No boots on the ground, no war; so no-one's hurt? In this age of ever more applications of computerized, unmanned killing machines, "boots" are not the qualifier for a wilful action against another country, which is not attacking us. Big brother has a firm hold on the average intelligence of many of us: war is peace, freedom is slavery (serfdom in America is growing at an alarming rate), and ignorance (no budgets for schools) is strength! Good luck to US, we are going to need it.
US SHOULD NOT BOMB LIBYA GIVE AID CASH AIRLIFT ETC NO BOMBS WE HAVE ENOUGH ENEMIES AS IT IS WITH OUR YEARS OF BAD FOREIGN POLICIES DEALING WITH AND -SELLING WEAPONS TO TYRANTS - DICTATORS LIKE SHAH OF IRAN ( BUSH SR GAVE HIM SAFE HAVEN ) THAT LED TO HOSTAGES TAKEN LATER REAGAN SOLD GUNS TO IRAN CONTRA REBELS THEN HE LIED ABOUT IT.. THEN JUST AS REGAN TOOK POWER IRAN RELEASED OUR HOSTAGES HOW COZY WAS THAT - A PAY BACK FOR GUNS ? BUSH WAGED WAR IN IRAQ BASED ON LIES- FEAR - AND MASSIVE WAR PROFITEERING
We are being lied into another war. The "No fly zone" is BS. They are not just bombing air defenses. They are bombing all the military. They even bombed Gadhafis home. This has nothing to do with dictators killing their people. We are doing nothing in Bahrain are we?
Don't forget that the rebels started the war and control the oil rich part of the country. That's what it is about, putting neocon puppets in to control the oil.
So... Obama trashes the constitution just like Bush did. Just what good is a constitution if it can be ignored?
let the Arabs & France do it this time
sharon Not war ? Bombs killing maiming Thom educates AND gives his opinion War ? boots on ground ? call it what you wish It costs trillions we do not have and puts lives in danger
so girl Do we 'rescue ' - wage war for all people in the world living under tyrany ? Then we need a draft asap since our troops are burnt out- tired- doing 3-4 tours.- many have PTSD Thats inhumane
War Police action ? same results Bombs killing maiming trillions gone I thought we were broke - but we always have cash for bombs and killing- not education = not poor - not teachers - just fat cat cuts and the massive war profit machine for Cheneys Halliburton Black water & Plane / bomb makers.. whats next Iran yemen ?
Yes we must have a huge war tax and let those who want more war send their kids to fight Our trooops are burnt out- some suicidal- some depressed. -some with PTSD Its in humane