Should Obama be Impeached if He Goes to War Without Congress?
Should Obama be Impeached if He Goes to War Without Congress?
The media buzz says that Obama is meeting with security officials and planning the release of a report claiming that the Assad regime was behind the chemical weapons attack.
Meanwhile the UN team has yet to be allowed to finish its job or to even investigate who was behind the attack. That's richly hypocritical coming from the party that spent 2002 shrieking, LET THE UN INSPECTORS FINISH THEIR JOB.
Apparently letting the UN do its job is one of those rules that only applies to Republicans.
Obama ordered a declassified report be prepared for public release before any military strike commences. That report, top advisers tell CBS News, is due to be released in a day or two.
There was no debate at the Saturday meeting that a military response is necessary. Obama ordered up legal justifications for a military strike, should he order one, outside of the United Nations Security Council.
It's nice that there's no debate.
Polls show the American people decisively opposed to Obama's Syrian War. The UN is not likely to approve his unilateral and illegal attack. And most importantly, there is no mention of Obama asking Congress for a resolution to approve the use of force.
For the second time in his administration, Obama will fight an illegal war without Congress. As in Libya, he will keep a few key friendly senators in the loop. A White House official has as much as admitted that saying that Obama will "consult Congress" not ask it for a resolution to authorize the use of force. And he'll eventually give a speech to Americans. And that's it.
Obama did it once and got away with it. He shouldn't be allowed to get away with it twice.
During the debates, he blatantly lied to the American people telling them that he didn't want any more foreign wars and that he would focus on nation building at home.
His new war is wildly unpopular. There is no better chance to hold him accountable on an issue that even many on the left would agree with.
Obama's complete disregard of the law and his insistence on imperial government makes such a confrontation both necessary and inevitable. And this would be one of the best places for such a confrontation. The impeachment would not succeed, but it would force a debate on Obama's abuses of power.
Before the election, Obama said, "The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."
He knows his actions are illegal. He was against them, before he was carrying them out.
Last year, Congressman Walter Jones submitted a resolution to impeach Obama if he illegally attacks Syria without receiving approval from Congress.
Expressing the sense of Congress that the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.
Whereas the cornerstone of the Republic is honoring Congress's exclusive power to declare war under article I, section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that, except in response to an actual or imminent attack against the territory of the United States, the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress violates Congress's exclusive power to declare war under article I, section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution and therefore constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.
The resolution was cosponsored by a variety of figures like Louie Gohmert to Dennis Kucinich. It may be time to pick it up again. If we're going to confront Obama's lawlessness, let's do it here.
Let's force the media to spend its credibility defending a war that the vast majority of Americans oppose and defending the right of Obama to unilaterally go to war against the wishes of Congress and the American people.
Let's stop playing around with the small stuff and cut right to the chase. We either have a Republic or a Monarchy. We either have checks and balances and the rule of law… or the whim of a handful of powerful men using their media empires and fortunes to manipulate ignorant voters into writing them black checks for their lawlessness in periodic elections.
This is the most important conversation that we need to have about the future of this country. Impeachment will force us to have it.
About Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.
Should Obama be Impeached if He Goes to War Without Congress?
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/should-obama-be-impeached-if-he-goes-to-war-without-congress/
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