…. for the attacks on Libya sounds an awful lot like his explanation of why the health care mandate is constitutional.
Just as the Obama administration tied the decision of an individual not to purchase health care insurance, through a series of connections and chains of causation, to the health care costs and availability of insurance of the entire nation thereby warranting regulation under the Commerce Clause mandating the individual purchase of insurance …
… so too Obama in a letter to Congress has sought to justify the failure to obtain prior Congressional authorization by tying what happens in the civil war in Libya, through a series of connections and chains of causation, to an exigent national security threat to the United States (emphasis mine):
Qadhafi’s continued attacks and threats against civilians and civilian populated areas are of grave concern to neighboring Arab nations and, as expressly stated in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, constitute a threat to the region and to international peace and security. His illegitimate use of force not only is causing the deaths of substantial numbers of civilians among his own people, but also is forcing many others to flee to neighboring countries, thereby destabilizing the peace and security of the region. Left unaddressed, the growing instability in Libya could ignite wider instability in the Middle East, with dangerous consequences to the national security interests of the United States.
There are, of course, other possible explanations as to why congressional authorization was not needed, such as that a limited attack does not constitute the level of hostilities necessary to trigger congressional approval, but this Butterfly effect argument of exigent circumstances seems quite weak.
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