Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Does The U.S. President Now Have A 'Blank Check' To Wage War?

President Bush is seen here in 2008 with Democrat candidate Barack Obama. The Telegraph

Andrew J. Bacevich, War Is Boring: The U.S. President Has a Blank Check for Waging War

How the United States became a prisoner of war and Congress went MIA

Let’s face it — in times of war, the Constitution tends to take a beating. With the safety or survival of the nation said to be at risk, the basic law of the land — otherwise considered sacrosanct — becomes nonbinding, subject to being waived at the whim of government authorities who are impatient, scared, panicky or just plain pissed off.

The examples are legion. During the Civil War, Pres. Abraham Lincoln arbitrarily suspended the writ of habeas corpus and ignored court orders that took issue with his authority to do so. After U.S. entry into World War I, the administration of Woodrow Wilson mounted a comprehensive effort to crush dissent, shutting down anti-war publications in complete disregard of the First Amendment.

Amid the hysteria triggered by Pearl Harbor, Pres. Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order consigning to concentration camps more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans, many of them native-born citizens. Asked in 1944 to review this gross violation of due process, the Supreme Court endorsed the government’s action by a six-to-three vote.

More often than not, the passing of the emergency induces second thoughts and even remorse. The further into the past a particular war recedes, the more dubious the wartime arguments for violating the Constitution appear. Americans thereby take comfort in the “lessons learned” that will presumably prohibit any future recurrence of such folly.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: And the powers that be want to streamline this process even more .... US Defense Secretary Wants More Power for Chairman of Joint Chiefs (Sputnik).

5 comments:

Unknown said...

A person has to have a pair 1st.

Obama is like a terrier that has small dog syndrome. He can only stand tall against domestic opposition, which is more insipid than he is.

Si-vis-pasen- said...

And this opposition are conservatives Christians, gun owners and returning veterans.the one's that welfare recipients call intoleran racist .you don't pay enough taxes.

Jay Farquharson said...

It helps to actually read the article, before commenting.

Because the House and Senate wrote Bush a "blank cheque" for war, and passed on amending or constraining it when Obama asked, every US President going forward, has a blank cheque with no requirement to even notify Congress, to go to war with anybody, any where, anytime.

All Congress can elect to do, after a US President starts a future war, is decline to pay for it if and when the President asks for further funding for the War outside of the existing budget.

Of course, once the President has put boots on the ground, in China, or Russia, Congress will never with hold funding.

Unknown said...

Obama did not spend as much time making a case for Libya or Syria as Bush did for Iraq.

Obama is graded on a very generous curve. He is black and Leftist.

Jay Farquharson said...

It still helps to read the srtice.

The article has very little to do with Obama or Bush,

It has to do with an open ended AUMF that names no names, names no countries, defines any limits, or limits and actions, but allows sny sitting US President, going forward, be it Trump, Cruz or Clinton, and any of their sucessors to time immemorial,

It's about the House and Senate, not Obama or Bush.