Is the U.S. at war in Libya, putting President Obama in violation of the War Powers Resolution?
Its answers took these forms: a presidential letter to lawmakers, a 38-page report defending administration behavior, and a flurry of insistent sound bites. "We are in no way putting into question the constitutionality of the War Powers Resolution," "We are not engaged in any of the activities that typically over the years in War Powers analysis has considered to constitute hostilities within the meaning of the statute. We're not engaged in sustained fighting, there's been no exchange of fire with hostile forces, we don't have troops on the ground, we don't risk casualties to those troops."
It all sounds persuasive, doesn't it? But the arguments just quoted, the contents of the letter, and the 38 page report do more to confirm that President Obama has acted illegally in waging an ongoing war than to refute that serious charge. Alas, we're talking about rhetoric prepared by a team of executive branch lawyers and bureaucrats, so untangling its flawed logic, various attempts at misdirection, and Orwellian locutions is going to require effort. Are you up for understanding why Libya is an illegal conflict and how Obama is trying to obscure that?
In the Obama administration's narrative, the U.S. launched its combat operations on March 19 to help establish a no-fly zone authorized by the UN and to stop Qaddafi's forces from advancing on Benghazi, a stronghold of regime opponents the dictator vowed to slaughter. The administration neglects to mention that CIA agents were in the country prior to that date meeting with rebels and gathering intelligence -- or that President Obama had authorized them to supply arms to the rebels.
The White House does acknowledge these facts: the total projected cost for Pentagon operations in Libya is $1.1 billion; the U.S. has so far spent roughly $750 million, more than $398 million on munitions alone; since March 31, when the White House said that operations had been handed off to NATO, more than 2,500 sorties have been flown by American pilots, including at least some "strike sorties"; unmanned American Predator drones are also flying missions over Libya to this day