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An article published in The Hill this afternoon indicates that Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor feels "left out" by the Obama administration's lack of Congressional consultation prior to launching airstrikes against Libya. According to the article, Cantor told asked “Where is the leadership, what is the endgame here, where is Washington taking us?"
Those are legitimate questions and Congress should ask them whenever the White House commits US troops to battle.
But before anyone pats Mr Cantor on the back for his diligent efforts to keep the White House honest, we might look back on his record on similar issues in the past.
That record is less than stellar. Cantor largely opposed congressional efforts to bring the Bush administration to heel in its open-ended commitment in Iraq, voting against The Iraq Transition Act and the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act, both of which called upon the White House to set formal timetables for the withdrawal of US troops from the region and calling Democratic rhetoric on the topic "irresponsible."
The Libyan campaign which Mr Cantor so sharply criticizes is literally days old and had the Majority Leader made the above comments and votes shortly after the Iraq invasion his apparent change of tone might be attributed to the wisdom of years. Unfortunately for Mr Cantor, that is not the case. The votes and comments detailed above came, not in 2004 but in 2008 -- when the financial cost of the Iraq war had long since passed half a trillion dollars and nearly 4,000 Americans lay dead in Iraqi desert.
By comparison, Mr Obama's Libyan adventure has thus far cost the United States a handful of cruise missiles, a single lost fighter, and no lives and the entire operation has been financed out of the Pentagon's standing cash reserves.
It is well and good that Mr Cantor and other Republicans have suddenly taken an interest in the significance of Congressional oversight, the cost of war, and the importance of an exit strategy -- it is merely a pity that it took a eight years and a Democrat in the White House to pique their interest.
