Let's face it. As a military tactician, LBJ was a moron. He and Bobby ("I'm So Smart That I NEVER Have to Apologize") MacNamara did more to lose the Vietnam war than Ho Chi Minh did to win it. LBJ followed in the great tradition of Harry the Hatter Truman, whose singular asininity managed to lose not only mainland China but North Korea, as well.
George W Bush, to his credit, learned from the idiocy of these two predecessors (and from his Old Man--see: Gulf War I), and lets the military run wars. It's worked pretty well, too.
Not to worry.
Congress and SCOTUS, aided by the NYSlimes, several high-level CIA and Executive Branch traitors, and the ACLU, are doing their best to re-establish Combat Idiocy as the regnant mode.
Levin has the goods on SCOTUS and the Congress:
Congress and the Court are systematically stripping the presidency of war-making powers. Congress demands that the president get court approval before intercepting enemy communications (we call that intelligence gathering) and the Court demands that the president get statutory support from Congress before he can use military tribunals to try terrorists.
And yet, neither Congress nor the Supreme Court have any explicit constitutional authority to make these decisions. Congress can cut-off funding for the war or any aspect of it, which it has not; and the judiciary's only role in these matters is to defer to the president, who has explicit and broad authority under the Constitution as the commander-in-chief.
His column is worth the read.
One small, teenie, weenie problem. You know we're at war, as do I. Problem. There was no declaration of war by congress, as is required by the Constitution. Does this little issue not restrict what policies the President can employ?
ReplyDeleteUmmmnnnhhh...
ReplyDeleteThere's no "legal" method of declaring war against 'terrorism.' War has typically been against nation-states. Sensenbrenner and I corresponded about that...
Now I'm no BushBot, as you know. And I'm well aware of the potential for abuse by a sitting President.
But--so far--Bush's actions seem to have been perfectly reasonable, including his Admin's request NOT to publish, AND the Admin's Gitmo incarcerations.
But you're right: technically, we are NOT at war.