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| 1898 newspaper announcing an official declaration of war. |
Congress and Eternal War
Keeping the people afraid and the
Military-Industrial Complex well fed.
By Gary;
June 5, 1942. That was the last time the United States Congress declared war. On that date Congress made it a three for one. We declared war on Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
That was the last gasp of our Constitution.
Bottom Line: Congress discovered something obvious. When you declare a war the people expect a peace treaty to result ending that war. So if war is never declared then there never has to be a peace treaty. War could now become eternal.
But after all ending war is bad for politics. War industry jobs are abolished, unemployment goes up, profits are down and the politicians do not have a foreign "enemy" to blame all their troubles on.
Since World War II Presidents from both parties have understood this. They have waged endless wars without proper declarations by Congress and often zero public debate. When Congress does bother to vote it is for meaningless "authorizations of force" so conflicts can drag on forever and even spread into neighboring countries.
Now we have our Dear Leader asking for yet another "authorization of force" for ISIS. It is all a joke. You are played for a fool as both parties use the authorization and the bodies of dead soldiers to score political points and gain advantage over each other.
Dear Leader is on his fourth unconstitutional war:
- Libya
- Yemen
- Syria
- Iraq
Neither party really gives a crap about the Constitution, a public debate or a vote on war. That is far too public. The American Sheeple might get wind of what is happening. Some of the more bloodthirsty Senators and Congressmen even cheer on unconstitutional wars.
The U.S. and our allies have sent mountains of weapons to overthrow the government of Syria (an act of war). As if by magic those weapons ended up in the hands of ISIS which then invaded Iraq giving the U.S. an official reason to go in and bomb Syria. Add in we are still sending in weapons to overthrow the secular Syrian government that protects the Christians.
All of this has been done without a public debate and a vote . . . . and no one really cares!!! The political liar class is allowed to do whatever they want.
Welcome to Eternal War.
Declarations of war by the United States
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| "Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia." - George Orwell Simply, if war is never declared then there is never a peace treaty. War can go on forever. |
7 comments:
War was never declared on the Islamic Pirates by Jefferson. The Marines still have a line in a song about that AUMF.
The AUMF has a very long history in the US.
Yeah. It sucks to be the dominant military power in the world. You would prefer the Chinese? The Russians? Islam Inc. perhaps?
The question is not isolation but following the Constitution.
You either obey the law, do a public debate and a vote or you allow a dictatorship where the will of one man takes a nation to war.
So you are telling me that Jefferson violated the Constitution?
What I'm pointing out is that if an AUMF is a violation it has been going on since the beginning.
Quite a few Libertarians have a hard time with AUMFs. I pointed out the same thing when Bush did it.
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It is pretty obvious the American people want a war with ISIS.
There will be a vote. We shall see what happens.
FWIW I counciled against the Iraq withdrawal. But it is what the American people wanted.
Even my wife - who is pretty much a liberal - can see that the withdrawal was ill advised. And libertarians? They were near unanimous in the desire to leave.
Libertarians hate power politics. And I must say that I'm not too fond of it myself. But we are stuck with the job and might as well do it well. That means studying war. The free flow of minerals. Te introduction of electric power and communications. English a a first or second language world wide. All the Empire stuff without the foreign rule. We support that by selling them stuff. But our most important export is culture.
In the mean time we should be subverting Islam with pornography, educated women, and cannabis. And tamping down the violent opposition to that when it arises.
Because ISIS is a reaction to the liquefaction of Islamic culture. We are destroying their virtues. Such as they are.
I can't blame them for wanting to fight. But you know how it goes. They are their own worst enemy. People these days want at minimum the illusion of self rule. And that is difficult in a strict Islamic culture.
Yes, Jefferson (who did not write the Constitution) violated the Constitution. He sent the military half a world away to make war on other nation.
James Madison (who helped write the Constitution) had Congress declare war on Britain in 1812.
You either have a Republic or an "elected" Monarchy where rotating American Kings can do what they want, when they want.
An AUMF requires a vote by Congress.
And War implies an action between States.
Pirates (and by extension ISIS) are not States.
Still. The use of the military was voted on.
And of Course the House controls the budget.
Until you can make your point an issue with the American people I think I see more AUMFs in our future.
***** Pirates (and by extension ISIS) are not States. *****
Wrong and wrong.
All of North Africa was a series of provinces and part of the Ottoman Empire.
ISIS is a self-proclaimed state, just as a young United States once was or Mexico that self-proclaimed their independence from Spain.
Piracy is a State?
A nice discussion of AUMF in the comments here:
www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2007/10/ron_paul_on_rac.html
And of course here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War
On Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, Yussif Karamanli, the Pasha (or Bashaw) of Tripoli demanded $225,000 from the new administration. (In 1800, Federal revenues totaled a little over $10 million.) Putting his long-held beliefs into practice, Jefferson refused the demand. Consequently, in May of 1801, the Pasha declared war on the United States, not through any formal written documents, but by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. Consulate. Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis soon followed their ally in Tripoli.
In response, Jefferson sent a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress. Although Congress never voted on a formal declaration of war, they did authorize the President to instruct the commanders of armed vessels of the United States to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli "and also to cause to be done all such other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war will justify."
So the War was against the Pasha.
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