Thursday, May 8, 2014

Does Ted Cruz Consider President Obama’s Military Action in Libya Unlawful?

by Gerard Emershaw


Republican Texas Senator and likely presidential hopeful Ted Cruz recently released a report in which he details 76 alleged abuses of  power by President Barack Obama. Many of the items on Cruz’s list are undeniable abuses of executive power such as the extrajudicial killing of Americans overseas by drones without due process, the continuation of aid to Egypt despite it being against American law to give aid to military juntas involved in coups, and treating secured creditors worse than unsecured creditors in the Chrysler bankruptcy.

What is most shocking is not what appears on Senator Cruz’s list but what does not appear anywhere on it. Despite mentioning President Obama’s reference to the Fort Hood shooting as workplace violence rather than as an act of terrorism, Senator fails to mention President Obama’s unconstitutional military action in Libya. If the biggest issue with the President was a matter of semantics, things would sure be peaceful. However, President Obama egregiously violated the Constitution which mandates that only Congress may declare war. President Obama launched his so called kinetic military action in Libya without the approval of Congress. The War Powers Resolution of 1973—which is itself likely unconstitutional—gave the President the limited power to introduce American military force overseas “in the absence of a declaration of war”:

The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.

Qaddafi and the Libyan government had not declared war against the United States. Congress did not give specific statutory authorization for President Obama’s kinetic military action against Libya. And there was no national emergency or anything even resembling an imminent attack planned by Libya against the United States. Therefore, President Obama’s military intervention in Libya—which was the catalyst which caused the blowback that led to the tragic murder of four Americans in Benghazi—was unconstitutional. In fact, if any actions performed in office by President Obama have been deserving of impeachment, his actions against Libya have.

Why is it that Senator Cruz does not believe that President Obama’s Libyan actions were unlawful abuses of power? With Senator Cruz shaping up to be a serious future contender for the Republican presidential nomination, this is an important question. It suggests that Senator Cruz believes that the president has the constitutional authority to wage war without the approval of Congress. If so, that means that he may be no different in his outlook on foreign policy and the Constitution than President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.

It seems unlikely that this was a mere omission on Senator Cruz’s part. After all, if his list includes the complaint that members of President Obama’s staff owe back taxes, then it is clear that he has pretty much cleared the decks and mentioned every complaint that he had with the Commander-in-Chief. This makes it appear likely that Senator Cruz may be a neoconservative posing as a Tea Partier. While Senator Cruz rightly opposed using the American military directly in support of Al Qaeda-affiliated Syrian rebels, he did propose that the United States military should invade Syria in order to secure and destroy its chemical weapons.

Unconstitutional interventionist foreign policy has been one of the most problematic parts of President Obama’s disastrous presidency. If Senator Cruz is ultimately an interventionist who believes in the unconstitutional neocon idea of the Imperial President, then he should admit it. If not, he should add President Obama’s Libyan misadventure as the 77th item on his list.   

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