Cantor: Congress feels left out on Libya

RICHMOND, Va. — President Obama must provide more answers to
congressional questions about air strikes against Libya, House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Thursday.

Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, said the
White House seemed more concerned with talking to U.S. allies than with lawmakers in
the days before the strikes were authorized.

“Many members of Congress feel left out, that there wasn’t
enough consultation with Congress prior to the commitment of forces and
military action,” Cantor told reporters after an event in Richmond.

{mosads}He also said the public wants answers from the White House
about U.S. objectives in Libya.

The public wants to know, “Where is the leadership, what is
the endgame here, where is Washington taking us,” Cantor, the second-ranking
House Republican, told reporters.

Cantor’s criticism comes a day after a letter to the White
House from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that slammed Obama for not clearly
stating the goals of the Libyan mission before launching the attacks. Boehner
ripped the White House for offering a “sometimes contradictory” case for the
war.

Obama launched the strikes just as Congress went into a
weeklong recess. The House and Senate resume next week, but Cantor said he had
not had “in-depth discussions” on whether the House might vote on a resolution
next week that would press the administration for goals on Libya.

“I have not had any in-depth discussions about whether we
would do anything like that yet next week,” Cantor said. “I do think there is a
lot of concern as to the endgame in Libya.”

The White House has defended its consultations with
lawmakers and has argued goals for the Libyan mission are clearly defined. The
White House is backing up United Nations Security Council resolutions allowing
for measures to protect Libyan civilians from violence, including the set-up of
a no-fly zone.

But Obama has come under criticism for whether the goals of
the operation also include removing Libya’s leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, from
power. The U.S. military mission is not to remove Gadhafi from power, but U.S.
policy is to have the dictator replaced. Boehner specifically labeled this
distinction a contradiction in his Wednesday letter to Obama.

On the subject of consultations, Cantor said he spoke with
officials during a Friday conference call and a subsequent call last weekend,
but he said no specifics about the air attacks were discussed.

Cantor was unaware of any future briefing calls with
congressional leaders and the White House, but he said he welcomed such conversation.

“We’re always ready to talk,” Cantor said.

Cantor criticized the White House’s policy on Israel and the
Palestinian authorities in a Wednesday statement after the bombing of a bus in
Jerusalem.

Asked how the administration was handling the situation in
general in the Middle East, the Jewish lawmaker said he had “difficulty
understanding what our security strategy in the Middle East is from a diplomacy
standpoint or otherwise.”

“I continue to go back to the imperative that the number one
security interest in that region is to stop the spread of radical Islam. If one
is to take that as a priority, we should be focusing like a laser on stopping
Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities as far as its weaponry is concerned,” Cantor said.