Warmonger!

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two senators concerned about US military strikes on Libya warned Friday they aimed to force a vote on whether President Barack Obama has the authority to wage war without congressional approval.

“We believe the answer is that he does not,” Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee said in a letter to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Paul and Lee said they would block legislation pending in the Senate until Reid schedules a debate and vote on a resolution offered by Paul that states Obama “does not have the power to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

“While we realize there are other matters the Senate had planned to work on, it is our belief that there is very little we are doing that rises to the level of a constitutional question regarding war,” they wrote.

“We do not take this responsibility lightly, and we believe the Senate is abdicating its responsibility at this very moment,” they said in the letter, which Paul’s office made public.