Antiwar.com Blog

Adam Liptak wrote in the New York Times several days ago that law schools are preparing to delve into numerous Constitutional questions that have been brought to a head by the Trump presidency, not the least of which is:

(See “New on This Fall’s Law School Syllabus: Trump.”)

Case in point: a conference taking place in Cambridge on November 4 will address the question, “Presidential First Use of Nuclear Weapons:  Is it Legal? Is it Constitutional? Is it Just?”  The affiliations of the speakers – including Yale Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, MIT – tend to affirm Liptak’s suggestion that this is a question that is being taken up in law schools and on campuses nationwide.

Continue reading “Time To Call the Question: Is Presidential First Use of Nuclear Weapons Constitutional?”

The misery inflicted on the Yemeni people by two years of US-backed Saudi warfare is almost unimaginable. Western press are either silent or they promote pro-war propaganda. Why is Washington selling Saudi Arabia the weapons to commit genocide on the Yemeni people? We get the real news from investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Action Alert from United for Peace & Justice

Amidst speculation about a potentially imminent nuclear weapon or missile test by North Korea, tensions on the Korean peninsula are rising to the highest level in decades, as US and North Korean officials posit threats and counter-threats of pre-emptive military strikes. Even hawkish former Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta has warned: “We have the potential for a nuclear war that would take millions of lives. So I think we have to exercise some care here.”

Today, in an unusual and worrying development, all 100 U.S. Senators have been summoned to the White House for a closed briefing on the Korean situation by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford. The briefing will start at 3 pm EDT/at noon PDT.

Call your two Senators now! Tell them there’s no military solution to the North Korean Crisis. Demand diplomacy. Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Also today, in a stunning display of double standards, the U.S. Air Force plans to conduct a test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. According to the launch commander: “These Minuteman launches are essential to verify the status of our national nuclear force and to demonstrate our national nuclear capabilities.” In other words, this test is intended to signal a credible U.S. nuclear threat. While you won’t probably won’t hear about the US missile test in the national media, you can be sure that North Korea is taking note. There is no military solution to the standoff on the Korean peninsula, which threatens to spiral out of control – potentially catastrophically. Both China and North Korea have proposed that the United States and South Korea suspend their large-scale annual military exercises in exchange for a freeze on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, but the U.S. and South Korea have refused even to discuss the offer.

Drop everything and call your Senators right now! Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121

It’s time to end US double standards. It’s time to stop making military threats and ratchet down the tensions on the Korean peninsula. One misstep could lead to the loss of millions of lives. Demand a diplomatic solution to the North Korean crisis. No military strikes. Start talking. If you get a response from your Senator’s office, please tell us about it, by writing to info.ufpj@gmail.com. Thank you for taking urgent action at this critical moment.

Ever since nuclear weapons were first invented and the United States used them against Japan, ordinary citizens have been subjected to an unrelenting campaign of obfuscation and confusion about their true nature and what’s at stake. If any of us stopped long enough to think about nuclear weapons, we realized that everything possible must be done to get rid of them, and to make sure no one is every able to cause them to be used. But our ability to think has been challenged by a smokescreen of state propaganda: the state needs them, the state has everything under control, the state will take care of it. (Just feel lucky you’re a citizen of such a big, strong state.)

Now along comes Donald Trump, who has sole authority to order a nuclear first strike and is tossing out threats left and right against North Korea.

People are waking up. Nuclear war is not an abstraction. It is a real possibility, and it is in the hands (right now) of a single person.

There are now forty-four (44) co-sponsors on Rep. Ted Lieu’s House bill to rein in presidential first use of nuclear weapons. (And nine (9) co-sponsors on the corresponding bill in the Senate sponsored by Ed Markey.) Now is the time to demand a tidal wave of support for this bill, and get the unilateral authority over these weapons out of the hands of a single person.

Please use this script to call and get YOUR representative on that list!

Reprinted with permission from Scarry Thoughts.

Announcing the publication of our opinion editor Scott Horton’s new book Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan.

It’s been endorsed by Daniel Ellsberg, Patrick Cockburn, Ron Paul, Stephen Walt, Eric Margolis, and many more.

Check it out on Amazon here.

President Trump was angry with his Secretary of State for recertifying Iranian compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. Even though Iran remains in compliance with the deal. What will happen when the next recertification comes due toward the end of summer? Will the US oppose its allies and the United Nations by unilaterally refusing to accept that Iran is abiding by the agreement? Already this morning the Iranian president has threatened to pull out of the deal if the US keeps adding sanctions on Iran with no justification. What next? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.