and sort of seeing where the world is. many people had hoped there would be more international support. so you have to measure these things kind of in snapshots. right now it is looking like there is more opposition, but there is time for there to be some sort of change if the president and his allies can be persuasive enough. definitely an unsettling time for the obama administration, kelly o donnell on capitol hill. thanks so much. good to see you. technically the president doesn t need congressional approval to take military action. let s bring in the presidential historian for nbc news. michael, looking back, whether it be the 1983 invasion of grenada, the bombing of libya in 86, or troops sent to somalia, we have a history of using military force without congressional approval. in fact, we ve done it 125 times. but there is a precedent for action even after congress says no, isn t there? yeah, there sure is. 1999, something most americans probably don t even remember very
we briefed congress. the night before but every leader of congress was brought to the residence the night before granada and where u.s. combat was going to free the island and hostages. you had the president of the united states briefing. tip o neill was angry about it in known 83 when we went to granada and did the same thing before taking out the missile bases in libya in 85 and did the same after the hijackers. if ronald reagan could brief the congress in advance of military operation, surely barak obama can find a way to do so, too. we know there will be other briefings via the white house. and we ll watch and see what congressional reaction is to that. good to be in the studio. and i will check out the book. i will leave you one. noil prices are sky rocketing and you know, that means higher
he said new governments in tunisia and egypt could serve as role models to a new democratic libya. powell was assistant to caspar weinberger dur the air strike against libya in 86. we ll be right back.
does agree with the terms of the resolution and withdraws, yes, in that case you can still enforce a no-fly zone, but you cannot engage in the kind of surgical strike bombing that would come about. i think that this is a little bit kind of like the 1991 persian gulf war in the sense that it had a limited objective, a human tear objective. it s to unrule something that happened. it s not to get rid of gadhafi. if we learned anything from afghanistan, have a clear identifiable on jek tish. what is the goal in libya in. the goal in libya of the resolution let s talk about two different rules. i think you re right. the goal of the resolution is a humanitarian one. it s to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, prevent atrocities which we know. that s not clear to me.
says the guy might live for ten more years. i hope the obama straight will back up the senate here. i know the president raised this issue in their meeting with david cameron in their meeting. was it a coincidence or more than a coincidence, ed, that a few months after he was sent back to lib yeah, the terrorist, bp got the oil deal off the coast of libya in. this whole story smells, i mean, to high heaven. i think the bottom line is the scottish behavior here convinces me that something went on. there s no doubt in my mind that bp made some kind of a deal here. i think i agree totally with paul. this is a bipartisan answer and it ought to be a bipartisan solution. this is outrageous. americans were killed. they lied to us basically to allow him to be free, and i think that we ought to fully investigate, it however we can, and the scottish government doesn t want to cooperate, we shouldn t cooperate with them the next time they need our help. let s stop drinking scotch. i do