A closed briefing in the Senate today has ended with officials saying that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) for the ISIS war is a “nonstarter,” after White House officials, principally special envoy Brett McGurk, informing the Senate leadership that such a vote was unwelcome.
Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R – TN) previously indicated that he was only interested in a new AUMF authorization in the case that the Obama Administration indicated that such a vote would give them more flexibility in fighting the war. Officials today made it clear they believe they have more flexibility in continuing the war with no authorization at all.
Corker has suggested he’s going to take the White House’s word for it, and said Tuesday that a AUMF vote “doesn’t make a lot of sense” because it would make the nation appear divided on the ongoing escalation of the conflict.
Which actually is the case. As President Obama continues to escalate the war far beyond what he initially promised, a growing number of Congressmen in both parties are complaining that the war is spiraling out of control and desperately needs some reining in.
The leadership is mostly not on board with this, however, viewing a debate on the war as too politically volatile, and preferring the status quo, a totally extra-legal war whose mounting failures can be blamed wholly on the White House, on the grounds that Congress never gave it an okay.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D – MD) similarly rejected the idea of debating the AUMF after today’s briefing, saying there was no real chance of getting enough people on board to pass an authorization at any rate, and suggesting it would be easier to simply ignore the matter.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D – NV) was even more direct, saying he in general doesn’t believe in authorizations for war, and believes that the president has “all the power he needs” to unilaterally launch and carry out wars without any Congressional involvement. That appears to be the White House’s position as well.
Apparently neither our President nor any Congressional "leader" of either political party has any regard whatsoever for his/her sworn oath "to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic" — essentially the same oath that I and every other present or former Armed Forces member has taken. In view of the fact that both the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution explicitly give Congress the exclusive power to wage non-defensive wars — and surely the present wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are not defensive wars — both the President and all "leaders" of Congress are clearly among those "domestic enemies of the Constitution" that I and all other veterans or servicemen have sworn to oppose. I think it particularly outrageous that our elected "representatives" in Washington have selected Veterans Day to betray their oaths of office to uphold and defend our Constitution. No doubt they are too busy waving the flag to notice that they are defiling it.
Beautifully said.
Excellent
Richard, thank you very much for saying what needs to be said in such a straight forward way. Over the last few years there were times that I started to wonder about the sanity of all Americans because of the course your "elected" officials have taken. It's nice to have these reminders that not all of you have gone crazy upon hearing the beat of the war drums coming out of DC. More people have become aware of the fact that these "wars" were never about terrorism and were nothing but an excuse to force compliance and support from an unsure public.
I have a feeling that the time is going to come where people, such as yourself, are going to have to stand up to these idiots. It's going to take immense courage and bravery to stand up to your government and I have no doubt the people will triumph, it's in your genes.
This administration is loosing ground with most of it's allies and the people will, I have little doubt, have all the support they require internationally, especially as Europe struggles to survive the Winter. The support will come but the American people HAVE to make the first move and not be too proud to ask for help. Together we CAN rebuild the USA, of that I have zero doubt.
Of course this is just the beginning as the next step is for the rest of the world to unite to abolish ALL central banks and our debt based currencies, as Iceland has done. Only when this has been accomplished will our planet have the chance at seeing a true and lasting peace.
Beyond "far gone and not coming back" and frankly all these people should be shot tomorrow.
> it would make the nation appear divided
Now we are worrying about foreigners' doubts about the necessary fascist unity of the Nation?
Better Heil a bit for a quick Sieg.
they only want the nation divided over stuff like gay marriage,gun control or abortion, you know nothing that focus attention on what your elected representatives are actually doing.
A convention of lunatics! I hope someone might blow them ALL, off to let the population get a chance to return to own convictions and reasoning..
Congress is nothing but whores and prostitutes for war profiteers,
crooks, and globalists behind the New World Order. Perpetual war,
bloodshed, and destruction is one way the NWO can get rid of
human beings it doesn't want, and keep those it does under control
by eliminating basic human rights.
Well, voting has become a mere formality anyway for our imperial rubber-stamp Congress. Why even bother with appearances? It’s so much easier to let Big Brother make all the decisions and Congress can stick to junkets…er, fact-finding missions, to Israel. Besides, war is the new norm. Our entire war-based economy would collapse like a house of cards if peace suddenly broke out. This abdication of responsibility by our representatives isn’t so dangerous when we’re picking on puny pissants like the Libyans, but now that we’re hooked on endless war it’s hard to kick the habit when someone our own size like Russia decides to draw a line in the Syrian sand. But Big Bro Obama is not insane McCain, right? He would never unilaterally invade Syria when Russia is already there….Oh, wait….
It is difficult for me to muster outrage at this any more. All we can do is expose, expose, expose until the American people finally get tired of trillions wasted on broken widows and broken and dead soldiers being thrown into the Soldier Hole, as the Onion puts it, or those soldiers finally say enough and quit volunteering for wars of foreign aggression. I'm hoping for national bankruptcy at this point, since nothing is apparently going to change short of such an event and the Congress is not interested in anything but getting re-elected.
People will accept getting poorer and broke, and still go to the voting booth to partake in "elections". They do not link our shriveling economy with the insane foreign policy. And the candidates for presidency are not being helpful. With the exception of Trump who occasionally stumbles into the truth — the rest of them are all channeling Hillary. They all bowing to the "prevailing wind" as Chinese will put it. This pathetic state of affairs is designed to coronate Hillary Clinton, the Red Queen of Neocons. They have reasons to celebrate. Congress under control, Republicans fielding poor imitations of Hillary, and nobody is afraid of Trump. He provides the comic relief what is otherwise a grim state of affairs.
It's moments like this that make one feel like we are living in Bizarro world. Congress doesn't want to vote for war because there is not enough support for war so we'll go to war without declaring war to demonstrate that we all support the war that Congress itself will not vote for. This is our fabled "Democracy" in action… Pitiful, just pitiful.
Ikester8 I fully agree. At some point we will simply stop listening to this criminal and rapacious government. At some point many of us will reach the point where we have to decide whether to pay our taxes on all these illegal wars which enrich the whores in government, or, feed our children. Guess what the choice will be. We simply need to ignore their criminal laws and takeaways, their disaterous laws and policies. They will then collapse in a heap and the whores and their banker, fifth columnists , and dual loyalists, can be dealt a very severe justice.
"…make the nation appear divided on the ongoing escalation of the conflict."
And that, my friends, is the bottom line. The cowards in Congress understand that the American people are not interested in anymore wars of aggression and if asked, would tell them NO. So, the Congress has chosen to not ask – in fact, they've chosen to ignore the American people…again.
If there is a "free Press" of which I personally doubt, they should be asking each Congresscritter they see why there is no vote for authorizing the on-going wars. And when they refuse to answer, keep asking.
Here is what folks need to know about the media.
Oct 28, 2012 Who owns the media?
The six corporations that collectively control U.S. media today are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. Together, the "big six" absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States.
https://youtu.be/9ona0jYWa6s
August 26th, 2015 The Age of Imperial Wars
2015 has become a year of living dangerously. Wars are spreading across the globe. Wars are escalating as new countries are bombed and the old are ravaged with ever greater intensity. Countries, where relatively peaceful changes had taken place through recent elections, are now on the verge of civil wars.
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/20…
It is pretty much all over but the shouting for the the US. We are bankrupt. We are the most immoral nation in history. We now have a full-fledged dictator in charge. I just wonder if they put Obama's head on Mt. Rushmore if it will have horns on it.
Then they better pull out those 50 "advisors".
Was Incitatus at the closed briefing in the Senate?
We could do with some horse sense.
Instead of the stuff from his other end.
Obambastic! No rules at all is surely infinitely flexible (and abjectly War CRIMINAL, STILL!)!