The founding fathers of our country would be shocked to see that a President of the United States could launch an attack half a world away without a formal declaration of war by Congress, with barely any discussion of it by the House or by the Senate. by Russell W. Dickson
(libertarian)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The founding fathers of our country would be shocked to see that a President of the United States could launch an attack half a world away without a formal declaration of war by Congress, with barely any discussion of it by the House or by the Senate.
usconstitution.net states that, Article 1, Section 8, of our Constitution says: Only Congress has the authority "to declare war." James Madison warned that allowing the President to take the country into war would be "too much of a temptation for one man." Our system of checks and balances has become completely warped, a President can wage war almost at will or at least whenever he can form a "coalition of the willing" to do his bidding.
George W. Bush used the phrase "coalition of the willing" too when he attacked Iraq eight years ago. Obama said that military action against Libya was not his first choice, but it certainly seems that way, some may argue the point, but it seems war is Washington's favorite methodology this day and age. We Americans need to wake up and face facts: we have a runaway Executive Branch filled with war mongers. And Obama appears naive in the extreme on this one.
How can he rationally expect U.S. involvement in this war to be over in "days, not weeks," or to think we can carry this military campaign out without using ground forces?It is naive to wage a war that is not in response to a direct threat to the U.S. national security. Wouldn't you agree it is a bit obtuse to expect millions of Libyans to cheer as their own country is being attacked by Western powers, or to expect that there won't be major civilian casualties as a result of our actions. These actions' I might add, according to Obama, were designed ironically, "to protect Libyan civilians." I wonder how long the rest of the world will go along with the ruse that this is not a U.S.-led act of aggression.
This is a scary time to be an American. One can only hope that level heads like Rep. Ron Paul and Rep. Dennis Kucinich will prevail. According to dailycaller.com, Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul will be co-sponsoring an amendment announced Tuesday by Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich that would defund the American military intervention in Libya. Kucinich suggested during a Saturday conference call with anti-war Democrats that he thought impeachment could also be considered for Obama's "unconstitutional" actions in Libya.
Paul's spokeswoman Rachel Mills confirmed to The Daily Caller via email that Paul shares Kucinich's point of view on the severity of the constitutional breach. "Yes, he thinks it is an impeachable offense," Mills wrote. "The President committed the U.S. to military invention without consulting Congress, in clear subversion of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which gives only Congress the power to declare war," Kucinich wrote in a Tuesday letter to colleagues.
According to justice.gov, there are certain circumstances when the president has the right to take military action. They are as follows; The President has broad constitutional power to take military action in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Congress has acknowledged this inherent executive power in both the War Powers Resolution and the Joint Resolution passed by Congress on September 14, 2001. The President has constitutional power not only to retaliate against any person, organization, or State suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks on the United States, but also against foreign States suspected of harboring or supporting such organizations.
The President may deploy military force preemptively against terrorist organizations or the States that harbor or support them, whether or not they can be linked to the specific terrorist incidents of September 11. Whether or not the President has the right is not the most pressing issue in my mind. The thing that worries me is how far we are stretching the U.S. economy, and our military. We simply cannot afford to keep meddling in the affairs of rogue nations overseas. It is time for other nations to step up. We need a change of leadership in Washington. Obama ran on the "Change" ticket, boy was that a lie! He is no better than his predecessor Bush!
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