Friday, December 8, 2017

Do Americans Support U.S. Troops Staying In Syria Indefinitely?

Rodi Said / Reuters

Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic: Do Americans Really Want Troops in Syria Indefinitely?

The Trump administration is spending tax dollars and risking American lives on an open-ended mission that hasn’t been defined or approved.

The vote that Congress took before the United States invaded Iraq proved very important in American democracy. Barack Obama was able to beat Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries in large part because she had supported the Iraq War. And Donald Trump triumphed over the establishments of both the Republican and Democratic parties partly by pointing to their support for the catastrophe and exploiting the fact that he was never forced, as a reality-TV star, to go on record.

Put another way, the life-and-death judgments of legislators had consequences, as the Framers intended when they vested Congress, not the president, with the power to declare war. In contrast, there was no congressional vote or pick-a-side public debate about attacking Syria with missiles or sending American troops to fight there.

Read more ....

Previous Post: Pentagon Spokesman: U.S. Military to Stay in Syria ‘As Long as We Need To’ (December 6, 2017).

WNU Editor: Sadly .... there is and has been no debate/discussion and/or even proper news media coverage on the U.S. presence in Syria .... and I expect this lack of public interest to continue.

2 comments:

jac said...

Well, that's Obama who put the troop back in Iraq and Syria and the Atlantic didn't complain...I wander why.

James said...

Either it was a moment in picture taking or his partner is shy. A lot of commo gear.