The Leftie favorite The Nation includes a feature on Rep. Walter Jones and his proposal to withdraw from Afghanistan. There’s also this interesting information about Jones teaming up with Rep. Dennis Kucinich in challenging President Obama’s intervention in Libya without congressional approval. I encourage you to read the piece.
Jones has allied himself with liberal Democrat Dennis Kucinich on many issues raised by the “war on terror” and Obama’s decision in late March to go to war against the Libyan government without bothering to get Congressional authorization. “We must not let any war continue absent legal authorization by Congress,” Kucinich said. He contends that Obama not only violated the War Powers Act of 1973 but also the Constitution, which empowers Congress, not the president, to declare war and provide for the common defense, in Arti-
cle 1, Section 8. Kucinich has vowed to force a vote in the House “to end US military operations in Libya.” Jones and Kucinich are discussing filing suit in federal court to force a judicial ruling on whether Obama overstepped his constitutional bounds regarding Libya.
Jones is also a point man in an effort in the House to grab back from the president the powers the founding fathers gave Congress to declare war and provide for the common defense. Not since 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, has Congress exercised its right to declare war. Jones sponsored a bill that would subject a president who lied in giving the reasons for going to war to prosecution by the Justice Department. The measure never left the subcommittee. As for Obama’s bombing of Libya, Jones said, “We’re neutered as a Congress. It’s like we don’t exist.”
