March 29, 2011 03:56 PM UTC

Obama Defends Libyan Military Action

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• by: Colorado Pols

In case you missed it, here’s President Barack Obama’s speech on Libya in its entirety:

With local (Democratic) reaction from the Colorado Independent:

Colorado’s senior member of Congress, Democrat Diana DeGette, expressed her doubts tonight after President Barack Obama delivered a national speech making his case for U.S. military action in Libya over the last nine days.

“Tonight the president stated his rationale for the military action in Libya, but I still have significant questions about our involvement in that country,” DeGette said in a release. “I remain eager to hear additional details regarding the causes for and the scope of our continued engagement in Libya on Wednesday, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary {Robert] Gates will provide a classified briefing to Congress.”

…Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, supported the president’s rationale, but he added that the rest of the world needs to now take the reins and enforce a no-fly zone. No Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation had posted statements regarding Obama’s speech on their websites as of 10 tonight.

Although FOX 31’s Eli Stokols caught up with Rep. Mike Coffman, who had plenty to say:

In [Coffman’s] view, it’s ironic that a president who, in short order, rode a wave of anti-war sentiment to a U.S. Senate seat and then the White House is now, as president, advocating — possibly even expanding — the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war he long decried.

“When you define a direction that is as interventionist as this, if this is the definition going forward for justifying military involvement, it is really open-ended,” Coffman said. “I disagreed with the Bush Doctrine. But I think this is actually even more agressive than that. This is what Obama campaigned against — this kind of foreign policy interventionism. And now he’s gone further than that, which I think is just astounding.”

…”This is clearly an act of war and it ought to require a vote in Congress,” Coffman said. “He’s calling it a humanitarian mission to get around that requirement.”