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Use of force. president george w. bush did that with iraq and afghanistan, which made for a lot of awkward primary debates among democrats running against george w. bush and his wars in the following two elections. but sometimes presidents order military interventions without declaration of war and without a declaration of an authorization for use of force, and that s what president obama has done in libya. after announcing friday that u.s. military force would be used in libya, the president sent a letter to congress today explaining the point of the operation and under what authority he ordered it. he describes the libyan operation as being in the national security and foreign policy interests of the united states. in the letter he reminds congress of his role as commander in chief and chief executive and says explicitly that he ordered the libyan military intervention, quote, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct u.s. foreign relations. foreign relations? is that what w ....
Western powers are trying to make room for people that may or may not be capable of filling that space. no doubt, this is a gamble for the president. people look at whether gadhafi stays or goes as a measure of president obama s strength in the world and what he is able to achieve. i think richard s right. sometimes you have to be careful of joining oppositions that aren t really in a position to win. you can create a moral hazard problem of getting other people elsewhere that begin campaigns against their government, they are not quite ready. those inspiring protesters in egypt were on their game. they knew how to move their people, how to resuscitate themselves when people thought the air was coming out of the protest in egypt, they shocked everyone by showing up again. that may not always be the case. what i recently said, one of the uncomfortable truths in this, sometimes revolutions aren t won by the protesters. it is going to be a mixed bag in the middle east. hopefully we ll d ....
I think richard s right. sometimes you have to be careful of joining oppositions that aren t really in a position to win. you can create a moral hazard problem of getting other people elsewhere that begin campaigns against their government, they are not quite ready. those inspiring protesters in egypt were on their game. they knew how to move their people, how to resuscitate themselves when people thought the air was coming out of the protest in egypt, they shocked everyone by showing up again. that may not always be the case. what i recently said, one of the uncomfortable truths in this, sometimes revolutions aren t won by the protesters. it is going to be a mixed bag in the middle east. hopefully we ll do okay in libya, but i have some doubts. steve clem ons of the new america foundation, publisher of the washington note, required reading. thanks for joining us. thank you, rachel. international events are overtaking domestic news. ....
Pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct u.s. foreign relations. foreign relations? is that what we re calling it now? joining us now, steve clemons of the new foundation. does president obama s statement reflect a broad view of what a president can authorize or is this in keeping with how presidents act on things like this now. as you just pointed out, the last constitutionally correct war was 2002. the tug of war between the congress and the president over using and deploying military force and engaging in what you call police actions has been going on for decades. i think president obama has decided he is within the letter of the law. and i think last week when he changed course in which way he wanted to go in this, he did begin actively consulting with congress and moved that ball ....