Even Putin Is Less of a Dictator Than Obama When It Comes to War

by Gerard Emershaw

One interesting detail that is sure to get lost in the dramatic unfolding story in Ukraine is that the Russian Parliament passed a bill authorizing President Vladimir Putin to use military force in Ukraine. While many will become preoccupied and view this as a reason to begin a new Cold War, let us set that aside for the moment. Putin is undeniably a dictator, yet even he is bound by a check and balance of the Russian legislative branch. He was required to seek permission to use military force. Compare that with what President Obama did in Libya in 2011. Did President Obama seek permission for his ill advised “kinetic military action”—which produced the blowback that led to the Benghazi tragedy—in Libya? Yes. The problem is that President Obama sought the permission of the UN, NATO, and the Arab League and not the permission of Congress as the Constitution requires.

During World War I, Woodrow Wilson was virtually as powerful as the German Kaiser. During World War II, FDR was practically as powerful as the despotic fascist leaders Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo that he was fighting. Today there is no doubt that President Obama—and the Imperial American President in general—is even more powerful than the Russian dictator. If this does not become a Constitutional wake up call against the imbalance that has arisen between the branches of federal government, then perhaps nothing ever will. President Obama once infamously denied being a dictator. Can he still plausibly deny it when even Vlad Putin is less willing to take political liberties than he is?