US lawmaker targets Libya strike funding

Dennis Kucinich tagrgets cost of Libya strike © AFP/Getty Images/File J.D. Pooley

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US lawmaker on Tuesday called military strikes to enforce a UN-approved no-fly zone in Libya “yet another war we cannot afford” and said he would seek to deny US funds for the operation.

Representative Dennis Kucinich, who is from the left flank of President Barack Obama’s Democratic party, said he would try to attach an amendment blocking spending for the effort to a broader bill.

“We have already spent trillions of dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which descended into unwinnable quagmires. Now, the president is plunging the United States into yet another war we cannot afford,” Kucinich said in a statement.

The lawmaker, who has repeatedly offered legislation aimed at pulling US forces out of Afghanistan, also accused Obama of a “clear subversion” of the US Constitution, which reserves the right to declare war for the US Congress.

And he complained that Obama had yet to notify the congress “of long-term plans or goals following initial air strikes in the country.”

© AFP — Published at Activist Post with license