the president didn t go to congress and ask for permission pot action. in fact ohio congressman dennis kucinich suggests it s an impeachable offense and he joins me now. congressman, impeachment, really? i raised the question. i didn t say that i think that a resolution ought to be put to congress. because the president is acting outside of the authority of the constitution. there is no question about that whatsoever. we have a standing army, though, and of course congress when it needs to use troops has great power, but when we have a standing military prepared to act at the president s command, a lot of presidents have given that command. you have james poke, zachary taylor in 1846 saying go ahead, occupy texas territory and then he goes to congress a week later to tell tell that war already exists. abraham lincoln used force in the civil war. truman, george h.w. bush,
the ha mcht m s briefing. he says they re seeking to protect civilians. he again is reiterating that there are no american boot on the ground, that we have not sent in ground forces, that there is no plan to. he says so far this assault has stopped libyan planes and it has also stopped the government forces advance on benghazi. remember that s really the last large rebel stronghold. say that again angie. okay. and he also says that this no fly zone that you re seeing now on the map is working and it s going to be expanded to tripoli. so, again, we re keeping our eye on that briefing coming to us from the pentagon and we ll be sure to get you the updates as they come in to us here at msnbc. a group of democrats are furious about the american action in libya especially since
losing track for several months now. the successful arab revolutions all go basically against the al qaeda narrative that arab people can t rise against that. and it s important to note that the u.s. is not acting alone, it s acting within an international coalition that includes arab. but the arabs are criticizing the action that the western forces have taken. let me play what robert gates had to say about the new criticism that the western powers have overstepped their boundaries by just simply not focusing on enforcing a no fly zone. i think there is a sensitivity on the part of the arab league to being seen to be operating under a nato umbrella. and so the question is if there s a way we can work out nato s demand and contrsxland al without it being a manato missi.
from the left, they ve criticized the action that the president is taking in libya john bolton has criticized the president for acting too slowly. and then you have people like newt gingrich who is contemplating a run for president who said that the president is getting involved in a civil war. so it looks like today at least the president complaian t win. and one speculation over the action is for political purposes. but who gains from libyan action? i don t see the politics in this. i think there is a lot of risk in the president getting involved in libya. after all, i think that whether or not the president is seen winning this battle all depends on whether moammar gadhafi at the end of it is still in power. the president has spoken many times about wanting moammar gadhafi to leave office. what happens after this no fly
we just heard lindsey graham saying see us as strong effective partners? it certainly wouldn t hurt. gadhafi is not popular in the arab street. many of the young arabs who have risen against their own regimes across the arab world are not big fans of gadhafi and the wegs and the u.s. will get brownie points for taking action against him. there have been calls from the libyans themselves and of course from the arab league. so, yeah, i think to the extent that there are any brownie points to be given, the president will get some. so if this provides an opportunity for us to recruit hearts and minds to the american cause, there are also questions about whether this this is an opportunity for al qaeda to recruit hearts and mines given again western powers intervening in arab affairs. i wouldn t stretch that very far. al qaeda has been in a sort of