Anti-Iraq Pro-Libya Presidential Doctrine (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | As a U.S. citizen, I have the right to voice my opinion in opposition or support of the government. That is one of the great aspects of being an American. Other countries are not as fortunate. Iraq was not as fortunate. Now Libya.

I remember during the 2008 campaign how this tall, eloquent speaking man told me that no president had "power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize military action that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation" mesmerized me. This man is now our president. At the time, I was pro-anything but Bush or any of his knockoffs. Not to mention, anti-Iraq.

Fast forward to today, Sen. Barack Obama is now President Barack Obama; thanks to my vote and millions others like me. What a difference a suit and a title make. It is time to agree with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and call "a spade a spade" three weeks before the no-fly zone. A no-fly zone will always equal attacks, fighting, and an upgrade from peacekeepers to ground support.

Obama told the world the United States "cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy." Is this an "actual or imminent threat" to the United States national security? Or just a repeat of Oil War III? Since we only import approximately 1 percent from Libya, the umbilical cord should be severed.

Changing the terms of "support" from ground support to humanitarian peacekeepers does not change the contradiction from campaign Obama to President Obama. Foreign policy does not dictate intervening at every humanitarian crisis. If this were the case, we would still be in Somalia, and Bosnia. Our troops would be spread across the globe, like ants on a picnic blanket, seeking out every brutally repressive government.

The U.S. military's role is to protect against all enemies, both domestic and foreign. At least that is what I remember raising my hand and attesting to at the MEPS.

Libya has become the Obama war doctrine that is not a war. Yet it has become the nonthreat to national security with bipartisan approval for military attack with the term, "humanitarian" attached. To quote Shakespeare, "A rose by any other name would smell so sweet." War is war, no matter the name used to reason it.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111222/us_ac/8167377_antiiraq_prolibya_presidential_doctrine

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