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Cure Worse Than Disease: Bill to Restrict Trump’s War Powers Would Actually “Endorse a Worldwide War on Terror”

April 21, 2018

RAQQA, SYRIA - AUGUST 18: Smoke rises from a building believed to be housing ISIS, after being hit by a mortar round fired from a United States military base on August 18, 2017 in western Raqqa.The MFS is a group of Assyrian Christians who fight alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Raqqa. The SDF was created in 2015 with the specific purpose of fighting ISIL and was armed by former US President Obama. The second Battle of Raqqa was launched in June 2017 and is the fifth and final phase of the Raqqa Campaign by the SDF. (Photo by Rick Findler/Getty Images)
Photo: Rick Findler/Getty Images

CURE WORSE THAN DISEASE: BILL TO RESTRICT TRUMP’S WAR POWERS WOULD ACTUALLY “ENDORSE A WORLDWIDE WAR ON TERROR”

ON MONDAY, THREE Republican and three Democratic senators, led by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., released a draft of a new “authorization for use of military force,” or AUMF.

This AUMF would repeal the AUMF passed on September 14, 2001, which gave the president the power “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.” It would also nullify the October, 2002, AUMF that authorized the president to use the military to “defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.”

Not surprisingly, Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump have each taken this extremely broad language and run with it. A 2016 Congressional Research Service report found 37 examples in 14 different countries of Bush and Obama using the 2001 AUMF to justify the use of military force. When a U.S. jet shot down a Syrian government bomber in June 2017, the Trump administration explained that it could legally do so because the jet was there as part of the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State — which is somehow an organization that committed the 9/11 attacks, even though it didn’t exist before 9/11.

So, something needs to be done about this. “For too long, Congress has given presidents a blank check,” Kaine recently said. “Our proposal finally repeals those authorizations and makes Congress do its job by weighing in on where, when, and with who we are at war.”

That sounds good. But the actual language of the Corker-Kaine bill appears to do almost the opposite of what its authors claim.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Mitch McConnell Moves to Grant the President Unlimited War Powers with No Expiration Date

January 24, 2016

Mitch McConnell Moves to Grant the President Unlimited War Powers with No Expiration Date

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The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.

– From George Orwell’s, 1984

This morning, I came across an extremely important story with tremendous long-term negative implications for freedom in these United States. It relates to the fact that the always shady Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is moving to fast track an Authorization of Military Force (AUMF) for the President that would allow for unrestricted warfare against ISIS. There would be no time or geographic restrictions on this authorization. Rather than being a favor to President Obama, this is primarily a means to ensure that whoever takes control in 2017 receives a blank check for unrestrained militarism with no expiration date. This is terrifying.

Before I get into the issue at hand, some background is necessary. Many legal scholars, and indeed, even many members of Congress have admitted that Obama’s war against ISIS is illegal and unconstitutional. One of the best articles I’ve read on why this is the case, was published in the New York Times in 2014, which I covered in the post, Obama’s ISIS War is Not Only Illegal, it Makes George W. Bush Look Like a Constitutional Scholar. Here are a few excerpts:

President Obama’s declaration of war against the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria marks a decisive break in the American constitutional tradition. Nothing attempted by his predecessor, George W. Bush, remotely compares in imperial hubris.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

ISIS CAPTURES CITY WHERE MARINES ARE TRAINING IRAQI TROOPS AFTER OBAMA SUBMITS WAR AUTHORIZATION

February 14, 2015

ISIS CAPTURES CITY WHERE MARINES ARE TRAINING IRAQI TROOPS AFTER OBAMA SUBMITS WAR AUTHORIZATION

Corporate poll says majority of Americans favor continued and expanded war
On Thursday ISIS fighters attacked and seized a large section of the Iraqi city of al-Baghdadi, located about 50 miles northwest of Ramadi in Anbar province.

 

They also advanced on the Ain al-Asad air base near the town where 320 U.S. Marines are training members of the Iraqi 7th Division.

The Pentagon reported “heavy fighting” in al-Baghdadi and said there were “reports of ineffective indirect fire in the vicinity of the base,” according to Reuters.

It also said Anbar is under “severe threat” by Islamic State fighters.

“Thursday’s fighting also demonstrates the continued ability of the Islamic State to remain on the attack despite coalition airstrikes. Still, U.S. officials maintain that the militants remain largely on the defensive,” the Washington Post reported.

Unconfirmed reports state ISIS has captured the air base and the Marines stationed there:

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Obama’s Force Authorization is a Blank Check for War Worldwide

February 13, 2015

Obama’s Force Authorization is a Blank Check for War Worldwide

The president is requesting Congress to pass an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) resolution against ISIS. Congress has not issued a similar resolution since 2002, when President Bush was given the authority to wage war against Iraq. The purpose of this resolution is to give official authority to the president to do the things that he has already been doing for the past six years. Seems strange but this is typical for Washington. President Obama’s claim is that he does not need this authority. He claims, as have all other recent presidents, that the authority to wage war in the Middle East has been granted by the resolutions passed in 2001, 2002, and by article II of the Constitution. To ask for this authority at this time is a response to public and political pressure.

It has been reported that the president is going to request that the authority limit the use of ground troops. However it would not affect the troops already engaged in Syria and Iraq to the tune of many thousands. This new authority will acknowledge that more advisors will be sent. Most importantly it will appear to have given moral sanction to the wars that have already been going for years.

Interestingly it actually expands the ability of the president to wage war although the president publicly indicates he would like to restrain it. The new authorization explicitly does not impose geographic limits on the use of troops anywhere in the world and expands the definition of ISIS to that of all “associated forces.” A grant of this authority will do nothing to limit our dangerous involvement in these constant Middle East wars.

The war propagandists are very active and are winning over the support of many unsuspecting American citizens. It is not difficult to motivate resistance against an organization like ISIS that engages in such evil displays of horrific violence.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

OBAMA ASKS CONGRESS TO AUTHORIZE WAR THAT’S ALREADY STARTED

February 13, 2015

OBAMA ASKS CONGRESS TO AUTHORIZE WAR THAT’S ALREADY STARTED

As the U.S. continues to bomb the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, President Obama asked Congress today to approve a new legal framework for the ongoing military campaign.

The administration’s draft law “would not authorize long-term, large-scale ground combat operations” like Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama wrote in aletter accompanying the proposal. The draft’s actual language is vague, allowing for ground troops in what Obama described as “limited circumstances,” like special operations and rescue missions.

The authorization would have no geographic limitations and allow action against “associated persons or forces” of the Islamic State. It would expire in three years.

Speaking at New York University School of Law this afternoon, Harold Koh, the State Department’s legal adviser until 2013, said that the Obama administration is currently on shaky legal grounds, tying the airstrikes to a law passed days after 9/11.

Koh said that stretching the law like that is inconsistent with Obama’s stated goal of bringing the U.S. off of “perpetual wartime footing.” Acting without a new authorization from Congress “doesn’t promote the end of the ‘Forever War,’” Koh said.

Since August, the U.S. and other nations have carried out more than 2,300 airstrikes, according to data released by the U.S. military and compiled by journalist Chris Woods.

The administration currently justifies those airstrikes by invoking self-defense and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. Passed one week after the September 11th, 2001 and just 60 words long, that law in broad language gave the White House the power to go after anyone connected to the 9/11 attacks.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

The New York Times Admits – Despite Going to Congress, Obama is Still Defending Unlimited War Powers

February 13, 2015

The New York Times Admits – Despite Going to Congress, Obama is Still Defending Unlimited War Powers

President Obama is going before Congress to request authorization for the limited use of military force in a battle of up to three years against the Islamic State. On the surface, this looks like a welcome recognition of Congress’s ultimate authority in matters of war and peace. But unless the resolution put forward by the White House is amended, it will have the opposite effect. Congressional support will amount to the ringing endorsement of unlimited presidential war making.

People who take the Constitution seriously, on both sides of the aisle, must not allow this to happen. They should insist on the repeal of the 2001 resolution and an explicit repudiation of the “associated forces” doctrine. Only then will the next president be required to return to Congress to gain its consent if he or she wants to continue the war past the 2018 deadline. If it fails to take a stand now, its sham debate will generate another destructive cycle of distrust that will further alienate Americans from their representatives.

– From Bruce Ackerman’s New York Times op-ed: Congress, Don’t Be Fooled; Obama Still Believes in Unlimited War

First off, I want to thank Bruce Ackerman for writing this op-ed in theNew York Times yesterday. Although the Obama administration already claims unlimited war powers in practice, this claim is illegitimate, which is why he is going to Congress to solidify his ability to declare worldwide warfare against a terrorist group that is a direct result of U.S. foreign policy: ISIS.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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