Posted on 04/11/2017 6:31:29 PM PDT by VitacoreVision
By ordering last week’s Tomahawk strike on a Syrian airbase, the president usurped Congress’s exclusive power to declare war. He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.
Make no mistake: President Trump’s airstrikes against Syria were unconstitutional. Military action may well have been justified from a moral standpoint. The Assad regime’s war on its own people and its use of chemical weapons required a response, arguably including a retaliatory strike to deter further such attacks. Inaction, as much as action, has profound human consequences. There is a case to be made that America should have taken military action against Assad in 2013, or even as early as 2011, in order to protect innocent Syrians from their own government.
The strikes may have been justified from a strategic standpoint, too — as a means of both advancing America’s interests in the region’s security and counteracting the perception of American weakness left by President Obama’s dithering response to past Syrian chemical-weapons attacks. A feckless, feeble United States — one that retreats from declared “red lines,” abandons the region to Vladimir Putin, creates a vacuum for the rise of ISIS, and generates a massive humanitarian and refugee crisis — is good for nobody.
But from a legal standpoint, there can be no doubt that Trump’s Tomahawk strike on the Syrian regime was a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
This author worked for the first Bush, yet he's completely stupid. He claims this is unequaled, yet, virtually every president has launched military incursions without Congress's approval.
http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/national-opinions/article143742599.html
Clinton lobbed 950 cruise missiles into Iraq when Monica “happened.” How's that for “unprecedented?”
You must be really young, or so old that you have no brain cells left.
War Powers Act. The President can deploy troops for sixty days without Congress in an emergency. We have 1000 Americans on the ground in Syria.
Just the crew from the “GOP Briefing Room” website forum.
Bravo President Trump...he didn't wiggle his way out of a disgusting crime against humanity...he didn't blame it on a video either!!!
Welcome to the real world! Syria has been a PIA for decades!
U.S. BATTLESHIP POUNDS HILLS HELD BY SYRIANS IN LEBANON; BRITAIN; PULLING OUT TROOPS
The Druse leader threatened retaliation against American civilians in Lebanon if the Navy continued shelling Druse villages.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 8 - The United States battleship New Jersey bombarded Druse and Syrian gun batteries in Lebanon for more than nine hours today in the heaviest and most sustained American military action since the marines arrived here 16 months ago.
The gunfire was directed at targets ‘’in Syrian-controlled Lebanon which have been firing on the city of Beirut,’’ a Marine spokesman, Maj. Dennis Brooks, said. The shells fired into the capital had landed in Christian-dominated East Beirut, several miles from the Marine compound at Beirut International Airport.
In Washington, the Pentagon said the destroyer Caron joined in the bombardment, firing more than 300 five-inch shells. It said the New Jersey fired more than 250 16-inch shells.
According to the Lebanese Christian Phalangist radio, the American bombardment pounded artillery and missile batteries from Shuweifat, just south of Beirut, all the way to around Shtaura, 22 miles east of the capital. The radio said 30 Druse and Syrian gun batteries had been knocked out along with a Druse military command post.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: February 9, 1984
For full story go to the link below:
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/09/world/us-battleship-pounds-hills-held-by-syrians-in-lebanon-britain-pulling-out-troops.html?pagewanted=all
Didn’t NR support the Iraq War where no war was declared? If what Trump did was unconstitutional, then a bunch of presidents violated the constitution doing this.
“I voted for Trump. I’m just highly against this attack on Syria.”
Well you are highly in the minority & for good reason. President Trump’s attack on Syria was 100% legal & your article is garbage from a garbage producer. President Trump even sent Congress a report on the attack in keeping with the War Powers Act the day after the attack occurred.
I bet you didn’t bother to read it cuz’ you “voted” for Trump. Right?
We didn’t declare war in Syria as Reagan did not in Libya.
You are supporting poop. This was no more unconstitutional than a corn fritter.
Yep. John Adams fought a naval war against France with no DOW. Jefferson sent the navy to take out the Barbary Pirates with no DOW. I suppose they didn’t know the constitution? Congress has the power to declare war, nothing says the president needs a DOW to send troops into combat.
Now even if he did need an authorization just for the sake of argument, the War Powers Act authorizes any president to fight for 60 days without an approval and another 30 days to withdrawal. So every president has pre-approval to fight anywhere, as long as he keeps it short. Of course members of congress have tried to sue under the WPA, and no court has ever gone along, and no administration has ever accepted that it’s constitutional to put any restrictions on the president’s war making powers.
People who say he needs a DOW are simply putting their own interpretation on the clause that flies in the face of all US history, legal precedent and the founders like Adams and Jefferson.
Clinton bombed Serbia for 78 days without any declaration.
And?
Since John Adams and Jefferson actually. Too bad this guy wasn’t around to explain the constitution to them.
Trump didn't declare a war. End of story.
My exact first thought. He has a duty to protect not only this nation, but those in this world that cannot protect themselves! I support that idea. Around the world, there are people groups that get murdered by stronger groups, and they can only survive if a nation who has the means to help them, actually helps them. Trump did this for these people. Syria’s next step might have been to chemical attack Israel. This might actually keep Israel from nuking Syria in turn. But, one day, according to Isaiah 17:1, Damascus will disappear overnight!!! And, Ezekiel Chapters 38 and 39 says that one day all of this will come to a head when Russia and Iran lead a group of nations in attack on Israel.
Where does it say the president needs a DOW to send the military into combat? John Adams and Jefferson both did. They didn’t understand the constitution, or what?
Well, I was just referring to the ones since my existence...LOL
Man, you really show a huge amount of stupidity. You have nothing to stand on, nor does this Bushite.
With your level of discernment and wisdom, how do you keep yourself from having sex with animals?
Rich Lowrey, Goldberg, et al. neo-cucklehead has-beens unworthy of a once venerable conservative magazine.
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