(WSJ) – President Barack Obama’s formal notification to Congress that the US had begun military attacks on Libya prompted complaints from some lawmakers Tuesday that the president waged war without congressional consent, appearing to contradict his own previous position.

In a letter to congressional leaders Monday, Obama said the US had “commenced operations to assist an international effort authorized by the United Nations (UN) Security Council” and “to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and address the threat posed to international peace and security by the crisis in Libya.”

Presidents over the decades have conducted military operations without prior congressional approval, including Harry Truman in Korea, George H.W. Bush in Iraq and Bill Clinton in Serbia.

But the most recent military action in Libya, which Congress was not asked to approve, irked lawmakers.

Sen. Jim Webb, (D-Va.) said in an interview with MSNBC, “We have not had a debate and I know that there was some justification put into place because of concern for civilian casualties, but this isn’t the way that our system is supposed to work.”

House Democrats held a conference call over the weekend to discuss Libya, and support among lawmakers was mixed, a congressional aide said. Frustration appears to be coming from rank-and-file lawmakers left out of Obama’s Libya briefing to committee chairmen Friday.

In 2007, Obama, then a presidential candidate, said, “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

The White House said the president’s actions did not contradict his earlier views, noting that the president met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers regarding Libya before any action took place.

A senior administration official said that the 2007 comment envisioned “an invasion like we saw in Iraq. A mission of this kind, which is time-limited, well-defined, and discrete, clearly falls within the President’s constitutional authority.”

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said the president does not always need congressional approval to move forward with military action.

He added, though, that “members of Congress from both parties, as well as the American people, are demanding the administration do a better job answering some basic questions about the scope and purpose of our mission in Libya, America’s role, and how it will be achieved.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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