Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Lugar Wonders When Kerry Plans To Hold Hearings On Libyan War

It seems like a reasonable question to ask. The President of the United States has effectively declared war on Libya and authorized military strikes against the country without so much as consulting Congress, let alone getting some form of advanced authorization for the military action. Sen. Richard Lugar has written to Sen John Kerry (D-MA), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asking that he conduct hearings on the Libyan War. In a "Dear John" letter, Lugar writes:

I write to request Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the U.S. government’s ongoing intervention in the Libyan civil war and the innumerable policy considerations that flow from that intervention. I noted a newspaper story today that cited one of your spokesmen as saying that there are no plans for hearings on Libya. That statement may not accurately reflect your own intent. But I wanted to make clear that I believe prompt hearings on Libya in our Committee are essential.


Any U.S. military intervention in a foreign country would require oversight hearings by the Foreign Relations Committee. In my judgment, hearings on Libya are especially vital because the Obama Administration did not consult meaningfully with Congress before initiating military operations. Members have not yet had an opportunity to question the Administration on its policy goals or its diplomatic and military strategy. The Administration has not defined the U.S. strategic interest in Libya or adequately articulated how the conflict ends. Questions remain about how the coalition will function going forward and what role the U.S. will play among our allies. Administration ambiguity on these points is impacting our military activities, the cohesion of the coalition, and public attitudes towards the war.

We also know little about the Libyan opposition or the Administration’s plans for paying for the war. It is not clear that the Obama Administration has thought through the consequences of this action for regional stability, the fight against terrorism, the impact on oil markets, and other factors.

I believe hearings not only would provide some important answers to Senators and to the American people, they would induce the Obama Administration to conduct in-depth contingency planning that does not seem to have occurred. Is the Administration planning for the range of potential outcomes, including a prolonged stalemate in which Col. Qadhafi remains in power in Tripoli? All scenarios in Libya will have significant budget implications at a time when Congress is focused on achieving budget savings. We need to discuss this now, so the American people know what may be asked of them . . .
It is remarkable that the Obama administration has done nothing to reach out to members of Congress either of the President's own party or Republican members like Lugar who have shown a willingness to offer bipartisan support for Obama's foreign policy initiatives, such as the START Treaty with Russia, even if those initiatives were ill-advised in my opinion.

Even more troubling is the growing disarray among our allies. Germany has already pulled out of the coalition, while the Brits are calling for the assassination of Quadafi. We are offering support to rebels which some news reports suggest are backed by al Qaeda. To think Barack Hussein Obama was issued the Nobel Peace Prize before he ever demonstrated to the world he was deserving of the great honor. His actions are totally unconstitutional and placing our country at great peril at a time it is already reeling from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It's as if he is deliberately promoting the destabilization of the entire Middle East and causing oil prices to skyrocket, which is only pinching the wallets of struggling Americans further. It also disappointing that Republicans can't seem to speak with a unified voice in opposition to this military action. I've been very critical of Sen. Lugar on a number of issues, but he seems to be one of the few adults in the room when it comes to this issue.

5 comments:

M Theory said...

Gee Gary, could it be that Obama & Congress are not the ones running the show ?

Gary R. Welsh said...

I think the Constitution and our country have been lost. People are too consumed with the morally depraved lives of Kim Kardashian, Charlie Sheen and Chris Brown and remembering how many husbands the late Elizabeth Taylor had to worry about the future of their country. So sad. We have no control over the destiny of our government at this point. We're now slaves to the New World Order.

M Theory said...

I think the point of Charlie's rant is to not be a slave to the trolls.

Perhaps it's time you started exposing what you believe to be true about the NWO.

I am a "birther" and a "truther" and proud of it. To not be both is defiance of common sense.

Cato said...

Lugar is straght-up CFR. That body usually supports military intervention anywhere and everywhere to manage global resources for their own benefit.

Oddly, when the country experiencing a slaughter is a third-world hellhole, they don't send forth their minions to beat the drums for war and occupation like they do when disputes occur in more resource-rich countries.

Kadafi is playing ball with the West and Israel. Regime change there doesn't serve CFR's plans. Obama has a personal desire to prevent slaughter, but such benevolence doesn't line the NWO's pockets. CFR was likely hoping to hold the line on popular revolts, fearing that new governments won't care much about the NWO agenda.

If Lugar is arguing against war, we need to ask what he's up to, or we perhaps need to see if Satan is at Sears buying a winter coat.

Cato said...

Melyssa,

It's not self-evident that Obama was born in any particular place.

It is self-evident that WTC 1,2 & 7 could not have collapsed through jet fuel fires or perfectly along their Z-axes in organic collapses, and it is self-evident that no plane hit the Pentagon.

I am troubled by the number of Republicans who are birthers, but not truthers. There is far more evidence that 9/11 was complete hogwash than there is for wherever Obama was born, but since many Republicans have a death fetish and love to kill the "other," the official 9/11 story is accepted as inviolate, while they strive to make the black man ineligible to hold his job.

If you examine Republicans through the filter of hate, their positions are reconcilable. They hate the "other," so they overlook any flaws in the justification to war with the "other," while they perhaps exaggerate their justification for finding ineligibility to serve in that "other."

If Republicans were even remotely as skeptical of the official 9/11 story as they are of the official Obama birth-certificate story, we'd be out of Iraq and Afghanistan in twenty minutes.