SENATOR WEBB CHALLENGES OBAMA'S HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONISM

[sabrina 1]

5. He was wrong about that. But is right about Bush's Unitary Executive theory.

The point is that I'm not advocating a retreat from anywhere. But this Administration's argument that it has the authority to decide when and where to use military force without the consent of the Congress, using the fragile logic of "humanitarian intervention" to ostensibly redress domestic tensions inside countries where American interests are not being directly threatened, is gravely dangerous. It is a bridge too far. It does not fit our history. To give one individual such discretion ridicules our Constitution. It belittles the role of the Congress. And for anyone in this body to accept this rationale is also to accept that the Congress no longer has any direct role in the development, and particularly in the execution, of foreign policy.

This was OUR argument when the Bush administration first announced that the President alone had to the right to go anywhere in the world with the US military without Congress' approval.

Are we now acknowledging that Bush was correct after all?