"I am personally convinced that we cannot continue to begin each military involvement abroad with a prolonged tedious and divisive negotiation between the executive and the legislative branches of Government. The world and its many challenges to our interests simply do not allow us that luxury." - Ronald Reagan
It's interesting to see people neglect that one of their most favorite presidents too waived the War Powers Resolution in both Granada and Libya.
The fact is, EVERY president has disapproved of the War Powers Act of 1973. Its purpose was to tie the hands of the president, largely in response to the Tonkin Gulf Resolution of 1964 and LBJ's (a Democrat, as you must certainly know) actions that led to the Vietnam War. As there are constitutional issues at stake, no president has fully supported the WPA, but instead has found ways to work through it or around it.
President Ford, for example, dealt with the Mayaguez incident and took action against Cambodia -- and did so QUICKLY and SUCCESSFULLY. He therefore didn't have a problem with Congress.
As somebody who was in West Berlin in 1985 when the LaBelle Disco was blown up by terrorists associated with Libya, and therefore ramped up in readiness when Reagan took QUICK, DECISIVE, AND SUCCESSFUL action against Libya, Reagan didn't have a problem with the WPA. Ditto with the 1983 invasion of Grenada.
The operative words here are QUICK and SUCCESSFUL. Congress takes a dim view of long, protracted, and visionless military actions. The *intent* of the WPA was to ensure that Congress was consulted and at least had an opportunity to gauge the political will of the people to sustain military action with a potential or real foe, in the absence of a formal declaration of war.
As the purpose of the Grenada operation was to remove communists from the island and depose a Marxist rebellion that had murdered the Grenadan prime minister, thereby posing a threat to the stability of the region, Reagan decided to act with quick and decisive power. The operation was successful and the Marxist rebellion was put down and the rightful government restored.
Same thing with Libya. A limited air campaign, with warships out in the Med just to convince Gaddafi that it wasn't all fun and games, convinced him to STFU and crawl back into his desert nomad tent where he came from. Not too much was heard from him until Barry's administration went limpdick on Gaddafi. And when that kind of thing happens, bullies like Gaddafi generally come out of the woodwork.
Now, let's take a look at Barack Hussein Obama. This is a man who avoided making a decision regarding Afghanistan until the situation became almost untenable. His campaign rhetoric (aimed at his base) assured his supporters that the Iraq campaign and Afghanistan campaign would come to an end. Instead, he increases the troop strength, but only superficially and in direct contraditiction to what his commanders on the ground were requesting.
So Barry is a pacifist. He doesn't like to fight to protect America's interests.
Now, let's take a look at Libya. Barry makes public statements that Ghaddafi "has to go". Awfully reckless coming from a physical coward, don't you think, especially when he waits for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to nod their Islamic fascist heads in agreement? And then he ducks, runs, and hides behind NATO, professing to work under that umbrella. Barry ignores the WPA, and refuses to even acknowledge Boehner's insistence for a plan and a structure as to why U.S. forces are even superficially involved in that conflict. And, AFAIK, that's where we are 6 months later.
So the natural question is, given Barry's history, is where the hell are we going with this Ugandan thing? So far, all we have is that it's a temporary thing, that the ROE are such that those sent - most likely SOC troops - will be combat-equipped, but won't be able to engage the enemy unless fired upon. They're "advisors" and otherwise observers in yet another open-ended conflict that has very few, if any, real objectives and certainly no strategic importance for the U.S.
Or, Kid, do you know something that the rest of us don't know?
