"If it looks like a war, it's a war"said Dennis Kucinich to CNN, but he's wrong. Many things look like wars and many things have been sold to us as wars that aren't wars. Johnson's War on Poverty? The war on Drugs? calling it a war doesn't make it so nor does saying it is when it isn't. The 1968 Democratic convention looked and smelled like a war -- maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.
Of course invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973 finally gives the dogs something to bark about and they've been looking for impeachment arguments since election day, but is the current hoopla about our support of NATO actions in Syria based on concern for the law or another congressional burlesque show attempt to overturn an election they lost for good reason?
It looks like a war to the Republicans too but then, Birth of a Nation looks like history to them. Reagan's invasion of Granda and Bush's invasion of Panama looked pretty much like wars as well, but although both those presidents did report to Congress under the War Powers Resolution they did so without citing section 4(a)(1) which would require approval to continue after 60 days. In both cases hostilities ceased before the 60 day period even though troops remained in Panama and the question was deemed moot.
The question then hinges on whether American forces and personnel are still involved in hostilities 60 days after the initial air strikes and are still substantially in harms way. Obama argues that they are not, that they are only providing support for an embargo. His opponents disagree, but then they disagree with his presence in office and everything he says or does even when it mirrors their own sentiments. Scandal has been cried more often than Wolf, but while I tend to see the argument in similar light as the White House does, I Wish he could have done what Bush did by taking action when Congress was out of session, but not having had that option, I wish he would simply remove this issue from the spotlight and allow Congress to have their way. If nothing else it would take my Representative Tom "Looney" Rooney off the soapbox and out of my inbox for a while.
I think NATO can do without us and if this is so important to the Arab League, they can use some of that firepower we sold them.
3 comments:
provocative, as usual. wish i'd got to it sooner.
last first: ur con gressman has same nickname as my new senator toomey. (i know, i know, false rhyme, but it works 4 me!)
nxt: maybe bho wanted congress 2 keep distracting itself w/ war powers bs 4 a time. when ready he cn say quit foolin round, no mercans in action, we got mo important stuff 2 deal w/. chide the children.
mo 2 pt: pretty sure i heard that in 1950 truman was about 2 ask congress 2 declare war n one o his pow'ful ex-colleagues advised against it. grounds? un charter's a treaty, so security council resolution made declaring war unnecessary. i suspect same defense clears bho o war powers violation, tho gops (n some on left, who think they have 2 oppose all wars) won't admit it. but also, congress doesn't want blame if public turns against a war when troops start dying, which may be real reason they haven't declared war since 1941.
finally: u in chi '68? a few fires set, but mostly smell was tear gas, not gunpowder, napalm, or burning flesh.
I lived in Chicago in '68, yes. People I know got roughed up, knocked down, cameras smashed. Cops shot up some things, tossed a woman off an overpass. National Guard came down State street in jeeps with barbed wire tied to the front bumpers. I saw a lot of stuff the media didn't want to discuss, it seems.
only got nightstick across shouldr blades, myself, but saw worse happen 2 others n heard bout smashed cameras. (phone cams make that not impossible but useless 2day bcuz so many.) don't recall shooting or ovrpass incident, but pretty sure barbed wire on one guard vehicle did get a lil coverage.
still, i suspect a lot worse wd've been done 2 us had our skin been darker. some o what happened round country previous april came lots closer 2 war.
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