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Dead Constitution
See other Dead Constitution Articles

Title: Romney, Candidate for King, Denies He Would Need Congress’s Approval for War
Source: antiwar.com
URL Source: http://antiwar.com
Published: Jun 20, 2012
Author: http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2012/06/18/r
Post Date: 2012-06-20 22:51:35 by F.A. Hayek Fan
Keywords: None
Views: 923
Comments: 35

Making the rounds is this clip of a Face the Nation interview with Mitt Romney. In it, he declares the Constitution irrelevant and argues he alone can make the decision to use military force against Iran.

(Video here)

Putting aside for a moment the fact that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, just consider for a moment that the Republican nominee can now openly say that as president he can make war without the consent of Congress. That’s what passes for a campaign pledge from the Grand Old Party’s leadership in 2012.

Obama also believes in the president’s ability to make war on his own, despite laws mandating he seek the consent of Congress. But at least Obama does it in secret or by proxy. That said, the Obama administration, terrible as it is, has expended considerable political capital in staving off a US-Israeli war on Iran. Obama officials, from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, have been paraded in front of Congress for months emphasizing their estimate that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and has demonstrated no intention to do so. Then Obama secretly contacted the Supreme Ayatollah through Turkey’s prime minister in a diplomatic fashion. He then released to the press the results of a Pentagon war simulation which demonstrated that war with Iran would result in the outbreak of a regional conflict which would be almost impossible to contain. The administration did this while getting hammered by the GOP candidates and the Israeli leadership.

As Pillar has written, Iran has “ample reason” to believe, “ultimately the main Western interest is in regime change.” I believe that too. But as of right now, it appears the Obama administration views the military option as too costly. Even establishmentarian voices, like Aaron David Miller, who I’ve personally witnessed saying “a unilateral attack [on Iran] would be totally discretionary. It would be a war of choice,” not of necessity. George Perkovich of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace interjected Miller’s statement for emphasis on what an unprovoked military strike actually is, saying “it would be illegal.”

Daniel Larison writes that Romney excerpts like this make it clear what kind of president he would be. “No one should have any illusions about how Romney would conduct foreign policy if he is elected,” he argues. Maybe. It’s also possible that Romney would conduct foreign policy indecipherably from Obama and is just saying this to show he is tougher and get Republicans to vote for him. Either way, watching Romney talk about foreign policy makes one thing abundantly clear: he hasn’t a clue what he is talking about.

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#2. To: F.A. Hayek Fan (#0)

Putting aside for a moment the fact that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, just consider for a moment that the Republican nominee can now openly say that as president he can make war without the consent of Congress. That’s what passes for a campaign pledge from the Grand Old Party’s leadership in 2012.

He got that idea from every sumbitch who has occupied the White House since WWII (which was the last war that Congress actually declared like the Constitution says they are supposed to if we get involved in one). Reagan waged war against a tiny little country that is probably not as big as most of our smallest states without any Congressional declaration of war. Both Bush's waged war without any congressional declaration of war, so did Clinton and so has Obama. Why would Romney not believe that if he gets to occupy the White House that he can't be king too?

James Deffenbach  posted on  2012-06-21   0:21:42 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: James Deffenbach, All (#2) (Edited)

He got that idea from every sumbitch who has occupied the White House since WWII

I've been thinking that the game of Chess has had something to do with gumming up our government and so many others with a bunch of warmongering, regime-changing megalomaniacs throughout history. I think the so-called pawns should be called The People and the other figures should be on the front lines guarding them.

Edited for spelling.

GreyLmist  posted on  2012-06-21   5:06:55 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: GreyLmist (#10)

I think the so-called pawns should be called The People and the other figures should be on the front lines guarding them.

Good point.

Esso  posted on  2012-06-21   5:31:05 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#18. To: Esso (#11)

I think the so-called pawns should be called The People and the other figures should be on the front lines guarding them.

Good point.

Thanks. I think The People should have the most freedom of movement. They'd be the highest official powers. The so-called aristocrats should serve as their travel agents and ambassadors to negotiate the best routes for them to the other side's castles for vacations and meetings. As travel agents, they would both be limited to one space, non-diagonal moves. If there's a blockade for some reason, they could act temporarily as ambassadors and then move two spaces away from it if they can, non-diagonally, to find another route peacefully. The stately bishop-looking pieces could move one space diagonally as needed for ongoing-mediation of blockade situations so that the travel agent/ambassadors can be replaced to move along in better directions. If they all fail to reach a peaceful solution, The People could convene their own Congress or Parliament and discuss with those on the other side the possible movements of knights in traditional jumping moves over the heads of the opposition; but only to unoccupied, open spaces as war deterrent bases. If still no agreement can be reached short of storming the castles and The People of the other side by military force, game over before then and all the pieces go back by truce to their original positions -- even the knights. No peace prizes won by either side through war aggression or intractable disagreement but the players might attain some peace oriented diplomacy skills, nevertheless. That's a rough sketch but I'd like to see something like that marketed, along with championship matches for peace prize awards, as an alternative to Chess.

GreyLmist  posted on  2012-06-21   17:33:20 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


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