By Steve Hynd
The American debt crisis is sucking all the air up in domestic punditry today, as a quick glance at the Memeorandum aggregator will confirm. (Although perhaps the most interesting writing today is on international reaction to the self-made crisis.)
Still, there's other news which should be getting more attention than it is: the world may slow if American politicians can't get their own financial house in order the way they urged Spain, Portugal or Greece to do, but it will still roll on. Domestic politics won't halt either, and one of the issues being entirely over-shadowed by the kabuki of the debt debate is a war that isn't a war because the President says so - and therefore doesn't require congressional approval, according to the White House.
It's always possible that Congress will rediscover its balls at a later date on this subject, but don't hold your breath - cyanotic blue isn't an easy color to accessorize. What's more likley is that the debt debate has made even those Republicans who saw a chance to hold a Dem president's feet to the fire forget all about Congress' responsibility. Thus the ability of any president to declare not-war, drop bombs and stuff, and do so without oversight or authorization will pass into precedent.
And how's that war going? Well, the plan is for just a few more freedom bombs and Gaddafi's loyalists will be so miserable they will start an uprising. Honest, even if that's never happened before anywhere, ever.
Meanwhile, the reality is that even Admiral Mullen admits Libya is in a "stalemate", Ramadan will slow the fighting rebels to even more of a crawl, and even ally Britain is getting desperate, suggesting Gaddafi could stay in Libya and avoid an ICC warrant by stepping down. Like that's going to happen if the rebels take charge...like the rebels are going to take charge anytime soon. Pshah, yeah!
Oh, and those same rebels are apparently devolving into fighting factions already. The fighters in Misrata wouldn't take orders from the dead rebel general Abdul Fattah Younes and now it seems he was assassinated by Islamists within the rebel ranks.
"Days not weeks", remember? That's why we don't need a congressional authorization. Oh yeah.
Funny how Obama needs no Congressional authorization to go to war in Libya, but he does need Congress to authorize raising the debt limit to pay for expenditures Congress already authorized.
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