Congressman Kucinich's Address to Congress on the War in Libya.
He's asking some very interesting questions. This 'must read' text you can read in whole on http://kucinich.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28905&Itemid=76
Mr. Speaker, the critical issue before this Nation today is not Libyan democracy; it is American democracy. In the next hour, I will describe the dangers facing our own democracy.
Will we become a nation which plots in secret to wage war?
The power to declare war is firmly and explicitly vested in the Congress of the United States, under article I, section 8 of the Constitution. That is the law. The law is king.
How can we pretend to hold other sovereigns to fundamental legal principles if we do not hold our own Presidents to fundamental legal principles here at home?
It is clear that the administration planned a war against Libya at least a month in advance, but why? The President cannot say that Libya is an imminent or actual threat to our Nation. He cannot say that war against Libya is in our vital interests. He cannot say that Libya had the intention or capability of attacking the United States of America. He has not claimed that
Libya has weapons of mass destruction to be used against us.
We're told that the Qadhafi regime has been illegitimate for four decades, but we're not told that in 2003 the U.S. dropped sanctions against Libya. We're not told that Qadhafi, in an effort to ingratiate himself with the West in general and with America specifically, accepted a market-based economic program led by the very harsh structural adjustment remedies of the IMF and the World Bank.
This led to the wholesale privatization of estate enterprises, contributing to unemployment in Libya rising to over 20 percent.
The administration has told us, incredibly, they don't really know who the rebels are, but they are considering arming them, nonetheless. The fact that they are even thinking about arming these rebels makes one think the administration knows exactly who the rebels are. While a variety of individuals and institutions may comprise the so-called opposition in Libya, in fact, one of the most significant organizations is the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, along with its military arm, the Libyan National Army. It was the National Front's call for opposition to the Qadhafi regime in February which was the catalyst of the conflict which precipitated the humanitarian crisis which is now used to justify our intervention.
But I ask, Mr. Speaker, how spontaneous was this rebellion? The Congressional Research Service in 1987 analyzed the Libyan opposition. Here's what the Congressional Research Service wrote: "Over 20 opposition groups exist outside Libya. The most important in 1987 was the Libyan National Salvation Front, formed in October 1981." This National Front "claimed responsibility for the daring attack on Qadhafi's headquarters at Bab al Aziziyah on May 8, 1984. Although the coup attempt failed and Qadhafi escaped unscathed, dissident groups claimed that some 80 Libyans, Cubans, and East Germans perished." Significantly, the CRS cited various sources as early as 1984 which claim, "The United States Central Intelligence Agency trained and supported the National Front before and after the May 8 operation." By October 31, 1996, according to a BBC translation of Al-Hayat, an Arabic journal in London, a Colonel Khalifa Haftar, who is leader of this Libyan National Army, the armed wing of the National Front, was quoted as saying, "Force is the only effective method for dealing with Qadhafi."
Consider this, Mr. Speaker: On November 2, 2011, France and Great Britain signed a mutual defense treaty which included joint participation in Southern Mistral, a series of war games outlined in the bilateral agreement and surprisingly documented on a joint military Web site established by France and Great Britain.
Southern Mistral involved a long range conventional air attack called Southern Storm against a dictatorship in a fictitious southern country called Southland in response to a pretend attack. The joint military air strike was authorized by a pretend United Nations Security Council resolution. The composite air operations were planned, and this is the war games, for the period of March 21 through 25, 2011.
On March 20, 2011, the United States joined France and Great Britain in an air attack against Libya, pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973.
So the questions arise, Mr. Speaker, have the scheduled war games simply been postponed, or are they actually under way after months and months of planning under the named of Operation Odyssey Dawn?
