tThis morning, I came across an extremely important story with tremendous long-term negative implications for freedom in these United States. It relates to the fact that the always shady Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is moving to fast track an Authorization of Military Force (AUMF) for the President that would allow for unrestricted warfare against ISIS. There would be no time or geographic restrictions on this authorization. Rather than being a favor to President Obama, this is primarily a means to ensure that whoever takes control in 2017 receives a blank check for unrestrained militarism with no expiration date. This is terrifying.
Before I get into the issue at hand, some background is necessary. Many legal scholars, and indeed, even many members of Congress have admitted that Obama’s war against ISIS is illegal and unconstitutional. One of the best articles I’ve read on why this is the case, was published in the New York Times in 2014, which I covered in the post, Obama’s ISIS War is Not Only Illegal, it Makes George W. Bush Look Like a Constitutional Scholar. Here are a few excerpts:
President Obama’s declaration of war against the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria marks a decisive break in the American constitutional tradition. Nothing attempted by his predecessor, George W. Bush, remotely compares in imperial hubris.
Mr. Bush gained explicit congressional consent for his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In contrast, the Obama administration has not even published a legal opinion attempting to justify the president’s assertion of unilateral war-making authority. This is because no serious opinion can be written.
h/t Kathie P
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Tell me again how we have two political parties.
David DeGerolamo
this is a sick man and he must be removed from his position, he has become a danger to the republic and is committing treason.
[…] (H/t NCR) […]
Mitch that weak chinned SOB is a lying deceiving ratz butt politician. I detest him and all the others that deceive the people. He should be brought up by his state on a charge of being a traitor and for stupidity. He makes my blood boil. The thought of giving any president that much power is absurd. This would bring us into every war that they want to have us in and it will be our young men, our soldiers in arms that will pay the price not them. Our military is already are a depleted strength point that I doubt they could sustain a serious conflict. Send Mitch’s grand sons and relatives into the war and see if he is so willing to have them go and get shot at. Cut the military budget and grant this war power to the president is a formula for slaughter and disaster.
Mitch McConnell is a fool whose advice should be ignored by any who know him.