The problem is that this has rarely — if ever — been the case. You have had the WPA being used to justify support for insurrections in foreign countries, bombing raids on Serbia, and now military strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen to defend the commercial shipping interests of a whole bunch of countries that conspicuously DO NOT include the U.S.
What this ought to demonstrate to many people here on FR who have no understanding of how our country should work is that the United States is designed under our Constitution to be isolationist by its very nature. That’s because the basic principle of limited government Is incompatible with the kind of imperial globalist nonsense that has become our way of life here for more than 120 years.
“...the United States is designed under our Constitution to be isolationist by its very nature.”
It was at one time when it was designed back in the late 1700’s. But that has changed a lot since then as we became more dependent on other countries for our survival.
“but only in the context of military action that is authorized by the President in response to direct threats against the United States.
The problem is the expansion of the definition of direct threat. For the “privilege” of trade we have had to use our powers of persuasion a few times like wars, tariffs, and trade agreements with certain countries in our best interest. For political interests from the attacks and destruction of lives and property in other countries local support became important. We are no longer self sufficient by a long shot and require the practical and functional interation of most coutries in the world in the best interest of our people. And there are people out there that don’t see it the same way so we need to react in this fast paced effort to survival.
And taking the decision away from a source, in this case the POTUS, that has the responsibility to act in minutes rather than wainting for the people to get a shower and go to their work at congress is not feasible when it takes about twenty minutes for the first sub launched weapon to hit the CONUS. Someone has to do it and the POTUS is elected for that purpose. Taking the prompt reaction away is what I would consider unintelligent as at worst, it is an incentive not to launch against us. And that is it’s main use.
wy69