A Letter From Mike Huckabee

From the Huckabee Report :

Last night, President Obama addressed the nation to explain what he's decided to do about the war in Afghanistan that's gone on for nearly 10 years now. He said the US had largely achieved its goals, “the tide of war is receding,” and he plans to end the surge of troops he sent there last year, bringing 10,000 home this year, and over 20,000 next year, for a total pullout of 33,000 troops by 2012. That's about a third of all the troops deployed there now. Military leaders had urged him to keep troop levels higher to finish the job or risk a Taliban resurgence. But after the killing of Osama bin Laden and other high-profile defeats of the Taliban, polls shows many Americans think we've done enough and just want it to end. The latest Pew research poll finds that 56 percent want the troops brought home as quickly as possible, and that's the highest number ever. And with a new Bloomberg poll finding that only 30 percent of Americans say they will definitely vote to reelect Obama, if the people want the troops brought home, it's no surprise they'll start arriving before the elections.

Of course, Afghanistan isn't the only Middle Eastern nation giving Obama headaches. He passed the deadline Sunday for getting Congressional approval of our involvement in Libya. Very few people on either side bought his argument that helping NATO drop bombs is technically not “hostilities.” So House Speaker John Boehner is giving Congress members a tough choice. He plans to introduce two bills on the Libya mission: One to authorize it for one year, and one to remove all US troops except those involved in non-hostile missions. He hopes to introduce them by the end of the week, so Congress members have about two days to decide where they stand and put it on the record.

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Congress v. The President?
Congress passed the War Powers Act in 1973. The intent of it was to check the powers of the President in committing our country to an armed conflict without the consent of Congress. The language of the Resolution is pretty clear, yet Presidents from both parties have consistently ignored it. The latest to do so is President Obama with the commitment of our troops to Libya.

Speaker of the House John Boehner sent the President a letter demanding that he comply with the War Powers Act by Sunday, June 19. Speaker Boehner reminded the President that on June 3, 2011 the House passed a resolution that made clear that the Administration had not asked for, nor received congressional authorization for Libya.

The White House didn’t respond, except to say its talking to Congress. I don't think that complies with the War Powers Act – and it sure doesn't seem to be what Congress has in mind.

The Obama Administration is trying to get around this by saying that even though the United States is providing most of the weapons and funding for NATO to bomb the smithereens out of Libya - it doesn't rise to the definition of "hostilities." Really? Even the President's own legal experts seem to disagree with this spin.

“So what comes next? Well, let's hope this doesn't lead to a drawn-out Constitutional crisis between two branches of government, both of which have other pressing matters to deal with. But there are already moves starting in Congress to cut off funding for the Libya mission.”