Posted on 02/11/2015 2:31:10 PM PST by Theoria
President Obama is going before Congress to request authorization for the limited use of military force in a battle of up to three years against the Islamic State. On the surface, this looks like a welcome recognition of Congress’s ultimate authority in matters of war and peace. But unless the resolution put forward by the White House is amended, it will have the opposite effect. Congressional support will amount to the ringing endorsement of unlimited presidential war making.
Whatever else they decide, the House and Senate should revise the White House initiative to guarantee that it won’t have this tragic result. First do no harm; before proceeding with a debate over the limits of our continuing military engagement, Congress should make it impossible for future presidents to evade its final decision.
The problem is the double-barreled position advanced by Mr. Obama. He asserts that he already has sufficient congressional authority for an open-ended war with the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. He bases this claim on an expansive reading of Congress’s 2001 resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to make war on Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks. As long as this resolution remains on the books, Mr. Obama claims, he can continue fighting, even if Congress never agrees to a new resolution.
For political cover, Mr. Obama now wants Congress to grant him new authority, and yet he opposes repeal of the 2001 authorization in exchange for that new authority. Although he has pledged to refine, and ultimately repeal, the old resolution, he has failed to follow through on similar commitments in the past. If Congress contents itself with another empty promise, it is highly likely that the old act will remain on the books when the new resolution runs out in 2018.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Obama will take the money and give it to some Rebels somewhere
“unlimited war” against anyone who disagrees with the Chosen One.
If Obama wasn’t so hell bent on getting out of Iraq none of this would be going on.
Yes! Unlimited against Christians, Capitalists and Constitutionalists.
Gotta fight ‘em over there so we dont have to fight ‘em here, you betcha.
Sure. And it can easily be argued that we shouldn’t have had troops there to begin with. But all of those points are over now. Nor do we have enough money and resources to protect the world.
On republicans and conservatives.
Totalitarian governments need despots, and despots need the power to wage unlimited war. People, laws, principles, constitutions, all that petty stuff, just get in the way.
Obama is incapable of sticking within any boundaries. If he gets that money and authorization, I'd wager it will spark WW3 when he uses it for his own agenda.
Congress is the only ones who can declare war. Odumbo just wants to arm his “friends”.
....Obama [and those for whom he serves as a frontman] Still Believes in Unlimited War....
Yeah. Against the Orthodox Christian world!!!!
B. Hussein Obama wants a war.
Our Community organizer has no idea what a military course of action entails. He has never written an OPORD period. He has no idea what military courses of action are, why they are discussed and why certain ones are favored. He is over his head and always thinks he knows all.
Under Obama’s plan, you can keep your Nobel Peace Prize
exactly.... he asked for power instead of just taking it.... that is significant.
I don’t think Obama wants a war, at least not with any branch or root of Islam. If he did he would ask Congress for a Declaration of War and get on with it.
I see this as elaborate Kabuki theater, and Republicans are very much complicit. That is, Obama’s request for AUMF is simply a way to generate a great deal of debate without ever forcing him to take action against Islamic jihad. This debate will stretch out over months while Obama sits on the sidelines and “leads from behind”.
If anyone was serious about eliminating terror from the world stage - at least for some period of time - Congress would (and should, IMO) declare war against Islamic terrorists wherever they are until they are defeated (eradicated).
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