The Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by the Senate is a rewrite of the Constitution’s War Powers clause and grants the President broad authority to deploy ground troops almost everywhere in the world, including the United States. That’s the warning being voiced by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy in response to the AUMF bill proposed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The bill would grant the president overwhelming control over where the US forces are deployed, which is scary for two reasons. The first is the obvious threat to American citizens’ rights. If the military can be sent to an American city based on loose justifications, they could be used to impose martial law and even empower a police state that has already grown too powerful.
The second reason is the plain call back to Manifest Destiny. Americans do not want to police the world. If the European Union is too busy handling the migrant crisis and Russia has finally come to terms with the harsh economic reality that their country is on the brink of collapse, it would leave the United States to ensure the sovereignty of all democratic nations. A solution that nobody would want.
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We is uncivilized folk and needs dem smrt folk to learn us. Because a-merica can not survive withouts thems.
INTERNATIONAL? Right! Lets see how the other countries deal with this. Martial will NEVER work in this country, to many REAL AMERICAN’S own guns and I, for one, will not ever comply. NEVER!
MY WIFE AND I HAVE BEEN PREACHING ABOUT THIS FOR YEARS AND THE CHURCHES REFUSE TO LISTEN THEN AND THEY AREN’T LISTENING NOW.BUT WHEN THIS HAPPEN’S AND IT WILL HAPPEN THEY WILL BE SORRY THAT THEY DIDN’T LISTEN TO WHAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS SAYING TO THE CHURCHES.
%100 would be better, right down to the custodial staff.
Well you are going to find out just how many are fed up with current events , and just who is going to stand with him and a count of weapons per side .
He declares martial law and we will have a civil war
IMPEACH this power mad potus…
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Better buy more body bags.
“This resolution is a total rewrite of the War Powers Clause in the U.S. Constitution,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn). “It is essentially a declaration of international martial law, a sweeping transfer of military power to the president that will allow him or her to send U.S. troops almost anywhere in the world, for almost any reason, with absolutely no limitations.”
McConnell’s resolution is more than what Obama asked for last year, but this is of little relevance since Obama has been carrying out a war against ISIS, including the use of special forces, with no authorization. The administration has refused to put forward a legal framework, insisting that the 2001 AUMF is enough.
As the New York Times pointed out, ISIS was created long after 9/11 and is actually a competitor to al Qaida, which means that Obama’s war on ISIS is not justified under the 2001 AUMF. Even members of Congress recognize that current military operations have no legal basis.
“I believe the war is illegal,” said Sen. Tim Kaine. “I don’t think there’s a legal justification for it. And I think the greatest danger we end up doing is allowing the president to wage a war without Congress weighing in.”
Using this rationale, Kaine and others in Congress are thrilled to know that a new AUMF could be voted on at any time. Some would prefer more restrictions, but the bottom line is that it represents and abdication of constitutional duties that would give vast military powers to one person.
Sen. John Cornyn expressed the usual platitudes in cheering for the vote, saying “the people we send in harm’s way need to know that the country is behind them” and “we also don’t need to tie the hands of the next president by restricting what the president can do.”
For some lawmakers, it’s more about giving the next president unlimited power than it is about Obama. McConnell’s about-face from December, when he expressed no interest in voting on an AUMF, may also be a ploy to make the issue a major talking point in the presidential election. There’s nothing like talk of war to whip up fear in the masses and distract them from substantive issues.
It is no coincidence that just days ago, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said about the fight against ISIS, “We’re looking for opportunities to do more and there will be boots on the ground and I want to be clear about that.”
Since ISIS is partially a product of American intervention in the Middle East, being cultivated from the Salafist sect to foment regime change in Syria, “boots on the ground” would complete another cycle for the merchants of death and destruction. The Hegelian Dialectic—create the problem, stoke the reaction, offer the solution—is a tried and true method for endless war.
We have already seen the extremely tenuous connections that war-makers use to justify their death and destruction waged around the world and on their own people. McConnell’s AUMF would clear away any feeble barriers that still stand in the way of a military dictatorship.