Mitt Romney Says He Could Wage War on Iran Without Congress' Approval

The Alatnic ^ | June 20th, 2012 | Conor Friedersdorf

[Mozilla]

On Face the Nation on Sunday, Mitt Romney said that if elected president he wouldn't have to get congressional permission for a military strike on Iran.

To quote him directly (emphasis added):

I can assure you if I'm president, the Iranians will have no question but that I will be willing to take military action if necessary to prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world. I don't believe at this stage, therefore, if I'm president that we need to have a war powers approval or special authorization for military force. The president has that capacity now. I understand that some in the Senate for instance have written letters to the president indicating you should know that a containment strategy is unacceptable. We cannot survive a course of action which would include a nuclear Iran we must be willing to take any and all actions.

All those actions must be on the table.

[Sherman Logan]

Sorry, did not say what I meant to.

“Only that the notion that until recently only Congress could authorize the use of force is not historically accurate.”

What I meant to say was.

“Only that the notion that until recently a formal Declaration of War was required to authorize the use of force is not historically accurate.”

[The Iceman Cometh]

Why should we have stayed out? Operation Odyssey Dawn was a huge success.

On what authority are we allowed to invade a sovereign nation?

[Sirius Lee]

Operation Odyssey Dawn was a huge success.

Abdul Hakim Belhaj is an islamist with ties to al-Qaeda. Some success. We replace our enemies with even worse enemies.

[Sirius Lee]

Operation Odyssey Dawn was a huge success.

Abdul Hakim Belhaj is an islamist with ties to al-Qaeda. Some success. We replace our enemies with even worse enemies.

[moonshot925]

“On what authority are we allowed to invade a sovereign nation?”

Muammar Gaddafi was our enemy. He was responsible for the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing and 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.

President Reagan ordered the bombing of Libya in 1986.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Libya_(1986)

[af_vet_rr]

Libya was an internal matter and we should have stayed out. Iran wants to wipe another country off the map. That, cannot be allowed.

If Iran is that clear-cut, then it shouldn't be a problem getting the full backing of Congress, regardless of your views on when and how the President can wage war.

[af_vet_rr]

Is there some reason why the other country can’t defend itself? I support protecting our allies, but we don’t have to fight their wars for them.

Certain voting blocks and lobbyists that politicians try to appeal to. There is nothing preventing us from fully backing Israel all the way, but instead we have Obama and Romney wanting to take us to war against Iran without letting Israel handle it.