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Defense and Security

Quick Takes: Obama Favors Congressional Action on Libya

By experts and staff

Published
  • James M. LindsayCFR Expert
    Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy
President Obama meets with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on May 20, 2011.
President Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on May 20, 2011. (Jim Young/courtesy Reuters)

Last week’s Friday File noted that Congress has not acted either to bless U.S. military operations in Libya or to end them. President Obama wrote congressional leaders late Friday to say that he supports a draft Senate resolution on that score. John Kerry, John McCain and five other senators formally introduced the resolution this afternoon. The operative language in the bill says that the Senate “supports the limited use of military force by the United States in Libya as part of the NATO mission to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.” Note the verb—“supports.”  That suggests Congress is a commentator on this exercise of the war power rather than the body whose approval is required. That’s not quite what the Framers had in mind.

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