Who Authorized President Obama To Declare War?

The U.S. Constitution says only Congress can declare war. The nation's founders did this to prevent one man from having such power. Yet President Obama launched the Libyan War, just as prior presidents thrust America into wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere without Congressional approval.

Where was the reasoned debate, weighing the consequences of America's action? I'm no supporter of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi but the world is filled with tyrants. Why no attack on North Korea or Zimbabwe? Why has the U.S. been silent about Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered or left to live in stark refugee camps?

Is Libya of interest because of its oil? What measurement do we use before committing the U.S. to war? You and I don't know the answers and our President preempted any discussion and illegally sent us off to war.

But as citizens, we must be a part of a reasoned exploration of our parameters for war and of our nation's budget and of other essential questions that effect all of us. Otherwise the substance of our citizenship has been emptied and unless we raise them, our voices rendered mute.

Dick