Libya war redrawing US political allegiances

WASHINGTON: The complexity of the Libya conflict is drawing some strange alliances in Washington's corridors of power, blurring traditional party lines and dividing both Democrats and Republicans.

While President Barack Obama has drawn support from some hawkish Republicans, including from his erstwhile-rival for the White House Senator John McCain, some of his Democratic allies on the left are now up in arms.

From within his own camp, Obama on Monday was accused of being "an extremist" who is failing to comply with the law by not winning congressional approval for the involvement of US forces in Libyan conflict.

"The extremist position is that any president can commit our forces for any duration with any amount of force for any purpose. And Congress is merely a source of optional advice," Democratic congressman Brad Sherman told AFP.

"Keep in mind that when (president Thomas) Jefferson sent American forces to Libya in 1802 he got congressional approval first."

At issue is the legality of the war, which the US administration has insisted is to help protect Libyan civilians as rebels seek to oust long-time leader Moamer Qadhafi.

The dispute touches on the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of the US government, a bedrock principle of US democracy.

"Keep in mind there are lawyers who are a permanent part of the executive branch who have been advising presidents to take the absolute extremist position and then to hide the fact that they're taking it," Sherman said.

This week the Democratic Representative is due to put forward an amendment to a defence bill calling for a ban on using the funds to finance US operations in Libya.

Sherman is among a growing chorus of US lawmakers, from both sides of the political spectrum, who have accused the Obama administration of ignoring the 1973 War Powers Act, a law intended to check a president's ability to go to war without seeking congressional approval.

The amendment if passed would "apply to 98 percent of the funds that go to the Pentagon, Sherman said.

"It simply says that none of the money provided in the bill can be used in contravention of the War Powers Act."

Sherman last week got the same amendment adopted with another bill on funds for military installations by 258 votes to 163.

"I expect my amendment to do exactly as well as it did last time, that is to say 60 percent of the democrats, 60 percent of the Republicans and zero percent of the congressional leadership of either party.

"But the idea that Congress would provide money intending that it be spent in violation of the law, strikes me as a violation of our oath of office," he added.

A similar resolution to cut off funding for the Libya conflict -- said to be costing $10 million a week -- has also been proposed by another Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich.

House Republican Speaker John Boehner has also issued veiled threats about Congress holding the purse strings, much to the chagrin of elder Republican statesman Senator McCain who has said there is no question that Obama made the right choice in lending US military support to the NATO mission in Libya.

Sherman is hoping that all the pressure will sway Obama "to start complying with the law" although he acknowledged the issue could take months to be resolved.

"Obviously if Qadhafi -- we all pray for it -- is toppled in the next few weeks this issue will go away," he added.

He is also planning a second amendment which would designate US operations in the North African nation as "hostilities."

The White House last week said in a letter to Congress that the War Powers Act -- which has been largely ignored by past presidents -- does not apply to events in Libya because there are no US troops on the ground there.

Further adding to the mix, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham qualified the War Powers Act as "unconstitutional, not worth the paper it's written on."

"I think it's an infringement on the power of the commander-in-chief," he told NBC on Sunday, adding he would not back efforts to defund the operations.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011