Conservatives have considered many of Obama’s actions and policies to be a betrayal of this country and his oath of his office. But his current ill-conceived path possibly sets him on a collision course with his own party and the Constitution.

Despite what you think of former President Bush or whether you believe our actions in Iraq were justified, when Bush went after Saddam Hussein in 2003, he had the authorization of Congress to use military force. In 2007, Obama 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.” Yet he sent the military into Libya anyway, why?

Consider the timeline. According to Reuters, Libyan protestors became active on February 15, when a riot was triggered by the arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel, who has worked to free political prisoners. The situation continued to spiral out of control with armed protestors attempting to take Qadaffi out and forces loyal to Qadaffi seeking to quell the uprising all the way through March 17. During this entire time the Obama administration did nothing but twiddle its collective thumbs. No press conferences, no appeals to Congress, no nothing, except weak pronouncements about what should happen to Qadaffi. Then on March 17th, the UN Security Council authorized the use of force to protect Libyan civilians. Two days later, the American military, authorized by Obama, launches airstrikes into Libya.

This is a concerning chain of events.  For almost a month, Obama twiddled his thumbs, biding his time, despite the fact that innocent civilians were being killed in Libya by pro-Qadaffi forces. Not once did he approach Congress with any hint of a request for military intervention. But as soon as the UN oks action, without including Congress in any decision-making, he sends in the cavalry. He clearly did not follow any established protocols or the Constitution in this matter, but rather operated completely on the assumption that use of force was now necessary because the UN had deemed it so. Article 3, Section 8 of the Constitution makes it clear that only the Congress can declare war.  In 2007, even in light of the War Powers Act of 1973, Obama claimed that a president doesn't have the authority to pur our troops in harms way with no threat to us. 

This betrayal of his constitutionally defined role has even riled some of the more principled Democrats. A few, like Rep. Dennis Kucinich, OH, are even suggesting that Obama’s action rises to the level of being an impeachable offense. And they would be right. With no communicated goal, no costs set, no exit strategy defined, and more importantly, no identified threat to the United States, this is just another example of Obama’s failure to lead and even more troubling, yet another example of his betrayal of our form of government.

So just who does President Obomba-the-Libyans-if-the-UN-says-do-it answer to?

November 2012 can’t come soon enough.