Democratic Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich told The Daily Caller on Tuesday he isn’t satisfied with President Barack Obama’s job performance on foreign policy issues.
“You could draw a straight line from George [W.] Bush’s international policies to President Obama’s,” Kucinich told TheDC. “There’s really not that much of a difference. One could say that President Obama’s taken George Bush’s authorization of the use of military force and has used that to telescope wars throughout the Middle East region using drones to further Bush administration policies.”
“The problem with that is that you end up, number one, having Congress’s role usurped, because any use of a drone in any other country is an act of war. If somebody attacked us with a drone, it would be an act of war. … Congress has had no role in that.”
Kucinich, along with former presidential candidate Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul and New Jersey Democratic Rep. Rush Holt, are challenging the Obama administration to produce the documents that outline their legal authority for drone strikes overseas. (RELATED: Top Democrats pressure Obama on drone strikes)
If passed, the resolution of inquiry would require Attorney General Eric Holder to “transmit to the House of Representatives not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution, any documents and legal memoranda in the Attorney General’s possession relating to the practice of targeted killing of United States citizens and targets abroad.”
Kucinich, a member of the oversight and government reform committee, said the administration is carrying out drone strikes with “no accountability.”
“The fact that we are using drones against individuals, there’s no due process of law,” he told TheDC. “We don’t know who these people are. We’re told by the administration to just trust them. They’re getting terrorists. No accountability.”
“Today, the president is put in a role of policeman, judge, jury and executioner, all with the push of a button. What’s that about?”
Kucinich pointed out that President Obama did not seek congressional approval for the Libya strike in 2011.
“He didn’t ask Congress about that. He just went ahead and did it. The founders had a reason for putting the war power into Article 1 Section 8. They didn’t want an executive, king-like, to be able to wage war to cause tremendous loss of life or loss of resources to occur to a country without having those who are directly elected by the people having a say it in it.”
“So look, I like President Obama, but this isn’t about who your friends are,” Kucinich added. “This is about the Constitution. … There might be a drone coming to a local neighborhood near you. … Police departments are starting to look at the use drones.”
