Throughout the Bush years, democrats were quite vocal in their opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, since the election of Barrack Obama, the anti-war rallies have gone from loud and commonplace to quiet and very few.
This is not just based on simple observation as two college professors actually have documented this phenomenon. This is strange because not only are we still in Iraq and Afghanistan, but under Obama the amount of troops in Afghanistan have significantly increased. Worse, according to statistics given by the LA Times, more deaths have occurred in Obama’s 2.5 years in office than the 6.5 years we were there under Bush. Even worse, Obama has started yet another war in Libya, even though his own Defense Secretary Robert Gates told ABC’s This Week, that Libya did not pose a threat to the United States and that “It was not a vital national interest to the United States…”
As though the decision to go into Libya wasn't bad enough, the Obama administration is in violation of the War Powers Act, as 90 days have passed since military action began in Libya. The War Powers Act (1973) was passed in order to limit the power of the presidency to engage in military conflicts without Congressional approval. The War Powers Act requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing troops to engage in military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with an additional 30 day withdrawal period, without a Congressional authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war. Despite this, President Obama asserts that no authorization was required, since the US leadership was transferred to NATO, and the US involvement is somewhat limited.
This is obviously a ridiculous defense of his actions. As Charlie Savage of the New York Times wrote, “President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.” Instead, Obama shopped around until he found lawyers that agreed with his position.
Seeing this third war come about and having seen the great number of leftist anti-war protestors in the Bush years, you’d think that there would be an uproar on the political left. With the exception of Democrat Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich who has been quite loud and consistent on the issue, and a few others, most democrats and the democrat leadership have avoided criticism of the president on the war in Libya. The loudest opposition against the military action has come from libertarians and libertarian-leaning republicans.
President Obama is no fan of peace with his ramping up of wars and violation of the War Powers Act, and the majority of democrats either: don’t care, support it, or won’t criticize their man. WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam were all fought under democrats. The great myth is that democrats are anti-war. The reality is democrats aren’t anti-war, they just oppose republicans and republican wars. Democrats are willing to support nearly any action put forth by a fellow democrat and will use any excuse or justification to help defend it. Democrats ran as anti-war throughout the 2000s, not because of any core conviction, but because Bush supported the wars.
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