It's becoming more obvious by the day that Americans don't like the war President Barack Obama started against Libya and want our participation to end. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly against supporting the war. But the House also voted against cutting off funds for the war. So there was a contradiction.

As we have pointed out, the Libya war violates both the Constitution, which mandates a declaration of war by the full U.S. Congress for hostilities to even begin, and the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which requires that Congress must approve a war within 60 days of its initiation.

Yet the votes on Libya do have some significance. "It's quite clear that the House has no stomach for this," said Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. "But they hate cutting off money while we're in there." He added that the House doesn't have anybody that really likes the war. Which is unlike the Senate, where Rep. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are major war hawks.

Bandow said that the House is a more telling echo of the sentiments of the American people. "These are the most election-minded people because they're all up for election next year," whereas only one-third of the Senate is up for election. Sen. McCain won re-election last year; Sen. Graham doesn't face an election until 2014.

Bandow also pointed out that, although Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is "a garden-variety strongman," early propaganda against him by Libyan insurgents has not been borne out, in particular allegations of mass rapes. The Independent, a British newspaper, reported June 24: "An investigation by Amnesty International has failed to find evidence for these human-rights violations and in many cases has discredited or cast doubt on them. It also found indications that on several occasions the rebels in Benghazi appeared to have knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence."

Another aspect is that the International Criminal Court just issued an arrest warrant for Gadhafi for such alleged crimes. Bandow said that this misguided action "works at cross purposes" with attempts to end the war by getting the dictator to go into exile. The indictment means he would immediately be arrested once he left Libya, and so, instead, will fight on to the bitter end instead of negotiating peace.

And as far as toppling tyranny goes, the United States has done nothing about the dictatorship in Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet is harbored. The regime has arrested and sentenced pro-democracy protesters to life in prison.

The Libya war never has made sense. President Obama should end it immediately. Even though Congress won't cut off funds, American voters will include the war in their calculations of whether to re-elect the president next year.

REPRINTED FROM THE NEW BERN SUN JOURNAL.