Finally, McCain does something useful and mature.
In an effort aimed at countering a House Republican plan to defund American military operations in Libya, Senators John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a Democrat, and John McCain, a Republican, announced the introduction of a joint resolution on Tuesday authorizing the limited use of United States Armed Forces in Libya.
Under the resolution, which could be voted on as early as this week, the president is “authorized to continue the limited use of the United States Armed Forces in Libya, in support of United States national security policy interests” for one year after passage of the resolution.
The bipartisan legislation, however, “does not support deploying, establishing or maintaining the presence of units and members of the United States Armed Forces on the ground in Libya unless the purpose of the presence is limited to the immediate personal defense of United States government officials.”
The easiest thing to do in this case is just go ahead and authorize the mission in Libya, while going on the record as to what is not authorized. Yet, I still believe Congress would be within its full rights to censure the president for his actions here. Withholding funding or disrupting the mission are poor options.
Maybe we can create some jobs by making a few bombs and selling them to NATO, since they seem to be running out them. The idea that there was some credible ready-to-go opposition to Gaddafi was not a good one. But, we’re committed so we might as well get the job done and stop fighting over what constitutes “hostilities.”