Kucinich is one of several US congressmen objecting to Obama's bypassing Congress with the military campaign against Libya.

Kucinich pointed out that a no-fly zone begins with an attack on the air defenses of Libya which is an "act of war."

"War from the air is still war," he argued in a press statement on March 18, one day after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973, the resolution authorizing a no-fly zone in Libya.

Other congressmen from both parties have protested Obama's bypassing his constitutional obligation to go to Congress for a declaration of war, before taking military action against another country, especially when that other country has not attacked the US.

In December 2007, before he became president, Obama acknowledged that going to war without a congressional authorization was a violation of the US Constitution.

Obama is quoted as saying, "The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

Kucinich illustrates how Obama's failure to defer to congressional authority to declare war represents a serious failure of US democracy.

For Congress to determine whether or not to issue a declaration of war against Libya would require not only debate and discussion, but also a process of raising needed questions about the nature and merits of military intervention.

Questions like "what is behind the plan for intervening in the Libyan crisis?" and "what is the goal of the intervention?" are but a few of the questions that Kucinich says need to be considered before such an intervention is authorized by the Congress.

In a speech he made to Congress on March 31, Kucinich recalled the experiences of the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam, where a supposed attack on US ships was used as an excuse for war, as well as the alleged "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.

These examples demonstrate the need for Congress to examine the facts being presented whenever a US president makes the claim that war is necessary.

"We have learned from bitter experience," Kucinich warned, "that the determination to go to war must be based on verifiable facts carefully considered."

The author is an award-winning US-based journalist covering the UN. She is also coauthor of the book Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn