It must be apparent to even the most partisan Democrat that Barack Obama’s election in 2008 has, in foreign policy and federal spending, turned out to be just the third term of George W. Bush.

Obama has tripled down on a 10-year no-win war in Afghanistan, dithered on getting out of Iraq, and has now attacked a third Muslim country (that has not attacked us) without even bothering to ask for a Declaration of War or even any kind of permission from Congress.

Obama did, of course, consult with the “international community.”

Most Republicans have responded in the usual muddled-headed way. Bill Kristol, the neoconservative political analyst, sends out a talking points memo from his perch on Fox News and his post as editor of The Weekly Standard saying that it is America’s duty to intervene to save the Libyan rebels fighting to overthrow their dictator.

Most every GOP luminary from Sarah Palin to Rush Limbaugh then dutifully snaps to attention and supports this unconstitutional, expensive and foolish action.

Radio talk show hosts yell, “Support the troops,” content to let one-half of 1 percent of the American populace (the voluntary military) do the heavy lifting.

The tea party, which always seems to be waving the Constitution around, quoting the 10th Amendment and advocating fiscal responsibility, remains strangely silent about the Constitution’s direct language about having Congress, not the president or the United Nations, commit us into war.

How do you reduce federal spending when we are conducting three undeclared wars, which to date have cost more than 4,400 lives, thousands more maimed for life, and about $1 trillion to $2 trillion and counting.

Where are the political grown-ups resisting this bipartisan “Invade the World, Invite the World, and In Hock to World” folly?

Gayle Finkbeiner

Belgrade

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