”He’s the war-ending President who, as of Tuesday, has ordered airstrikes in seven different countries (that we know of),” CNN declared in a Sept. 23, 2014 piece on how then-President Barack Obama ordered non-war airstrikes against six countries – without Congressional approval.
On Saturday, a U.S. airstrike devastating three Iranian nuclear sites prompted Democrats to threaten to take Congressional action against – and even impeach – Pres. Donald Trump for authorizing the strikes preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons to use against its sworn enemies, the U.S. and Israel.
“Trump’s bombings present major constitutional and legal questions. But it’s up to Congress to force the issue,” CNN warned Monday:
“President Donald Trump’s order to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities presents a new test of the Constitution and the extent of presidential powers to conduct war despite a lack of congressional approval.”
But, CNN sang a much different tune back in 2014 when Barack Obama was president, in an article titled “Countries bombed by the U.S. under the Obama administration”:
“He’s the war-ending President who, as of Tuesday, has ordered airstrikes in seven different countries (that we know of).
“President Barack Obama has always acknowledged there are times when military force is necessary. Even when he accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, he said there could be instances when war is “morally justified.”
“But though he campaigned for the presidency on ending U.S.-led wars, Obama’s administration has certainly been willing to use force when it sees fit,” CNN noted, recapping airstrikes Obama had ordered against seven different countries. In one, Afghanistan, the Obama-ordered airstrikes were a continuation of a war he inherited when he took office in 2009.
In only one case did Obama seek Congressional authority to order the military strikes: in Iraq in 2014, three years after the war had ended.
Since Saturday’s airstrikes – which exclusively targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities – Democrats have been claiming that Pres. Trump violated the War Powers Act requiring presidents to gain Congressional approval before entering into war.
But, on Monday, Conservative Commentator and Constitutional Scholar Mark Levin took to X.com to remind Americans of the six “TIMES OBAMA DROPPED BOMBS BUT DIDN’T DECLARE WAR”:
- Libya 2011
- Pakistan 2009-2016
- Yemen 2009-2016
- Somalia 2009-2016
- Iraq 2014-2016
- Syria 2014-2016
In its 2014 article, CNN affirmed that targeted airstrikes, in and of themselves, do not constitute an act of war.
Just as Pres. Trump took action in response to the nuclear threat from Iran (which has vowed “Death to America”), Pres. Obama ordered airstrikes in response to potential threats.
In Yemen, Obama ordered airstrikes because the U.S. was “Facing threats from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” CNN noted.
“Citing a humanitarian crisis and potential threats to American interests, Obama ordered airstrikes to begin in Iraq in August [2014], becoming the fourth president in a row to order airstrikes there.,” CNN reported.
