Here is some further context on how Obama handled his decision-marking about going with the no-fly zone in Libya:
Quote:
The record of Obama’s three immediate predecessors shows that presidents launch military operations sometimes with congressional authorization and sometimes without.
In the case of the first Iraq war in 1991, the second Iraq war in 2003, and the Afghanistan war in 2001, the president sought and obtained prior congressional authorization.
Congress refused to to give its authorization to President Bill Clinton in three separate instances — the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Haiti in 1994, the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Bosnia in 1996, and U.S. involvement in the NATO air war against the Yugoslav regime in 1999 — but he acted nonetheless.
In 1986 when President Ronald Reagan ordered air strikes on Libya in retaliation for the bombing of a Berlin nightclub frequented by American servicemen in which one U.S. sergeant was killed, he conferred with congressional leaders but did not seek a vote to authorize his action.
"Self-defense is not only our right, it is our duty," Reagan told the American people.
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Obama, Libya and the authorization conflict - Politics - msnbc.com
So, again, you see a contrast between such instances as the decisions on full-on wars such as Iraq I & II and Afghanistan vs. such instances as the actions taken in Haiti, Bosnia, Yogoslavia, and Libya (in 1986), which included peacekeeping missions and air strikes.