Operation "Odyssey Dawn"

h/t for the image to Caffeinated Thoughts

For the first year and a half of his administration, our friend Barry blamed Bush to make his policies look better; now BO's tactic seems to be to childishly smear Bush.

Read the excellent article by John Hayward at Human Events: "The Bush Smear: Obama makes a revealing missstatement in Chile."

[T]he President declared: "In the past there have been times when the United States acted unilaterally or did not have full international support, and as a consequence typically it was the United States military that ended up bearing the entire burden."

Odyssey Dawn [is that just the most perfect name for a military operation coming from O's administration--evah?--I mean, it's simply embarrassing] is only four days old. Unlike Bush, Obama made no effort to prepare the American people for the operation, and now that the initial surprise has worn off, significant questions are being asked about his authority to launch these attacks. The concept of taking executive action to counter an imminent threat was arguable in Bush’s case – and people have been arguing about it for years – but utterly risible with respect to Libya. Indeed, the Administration hasn’t even tried to advance such an argument.

Against this backdrop, Obama decided to throw out an offhanded smear of his predecessor… a slander so transparently false that it was debunked within minutes? That’s a disconnect with reality so profound that it verges on mental illness. It also highlights just how half-hearted and poorly thought out this decision was.

The whole article is worth the read.

From Politico: "John Boehner rips President Obama on Libya" It seems that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has stepped up his critique of Big Zero's handling of military operations in Libya. He sent the president a letter demanding answers to the run-up to the engagement: I and many other members of the House of Representatives are troubled that U.S. military resources were committed to war without clearly defining for the American people, the Congress, and our troops what the mission in Libya is and what America's role is in achieving that mission. In fact, the limited, sometimes contradictory, case made to the American people by members of your Administration has left some fundamental questions about our engagement unanswered. At the same time, by contrast, it appears your Administration has consulted extensively on these same matters with foreign entities such as the United Nations and the Arab League.

Boehner goes on to say that he hopes Obama will provide a "clear and robust assessment of the scope, objective, and purpose of our mission in Libya tand how it will be achieved" and goes on to spell out the questions that he has for the Executive branch. The letter ends: The American people take the use of military action seriously, as does the House of Representatives. It is regrettable that no opportunity was afforded to consult with Congressional leaders, as was the custom of your predecessors, before your decision as Commander-in-Chief to deploy into combat the men and women of our Armed Forces. Understanding some information required to respond may be classified, I look forward to a complete response.

You're not the King of the Americas just yet, Barry. You really do have to answer to the other co-equal branch of government.

Update: Obama Administration: THIS IS NOT A WAR, dammit. Libya is a "kinetic military action."