Today (4/7/17), Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) released the following statement regarding the launch of U.S. airstrikes in Syria:
“Regardless of the circumstances, no American president has the constitutional right to commit acts of war against a sovereign nation without approval from Congress,” said Congressman Jones. “As clearly stated in the Constitution, Congress has the sole power to declare war. This is a dangerous precedent for the president to set for the new administration.”
For additional information, please contact Allison Tucker in Congressman Walter Jones’ office at Allison.Tucker@mail.house.gov.
Right on, Congressman Jones!
The Constitution has been totally and irrevocably displaced by the Golden Rule, i.e. “He who has the gold makes the rules.”
The thing is Marcus, your constitution is only dredged up by you Americans to further you own ideals, with total disregard for it’s content.
That’s the only reason we hear Americans going on about their constitution so often. It’s really just irrelevant in comparison to your domestic political priorities.
Gee, Don: I can see that being non-American makes you so much smarter and more sophisticated than we US colonials. How else were you able to apply an extremely limited reference to the Constitution–in one very brief statement of opinion regarding one congressman’s statement–to proclaiming a universal truth about every American’s “going on about their constitution” for any reason? Moreover, your “The US congress exists to be re-elected”–in another comment–is sure to be a stunning revelation to all who read and comment here. We owe you big-time for that profound insight.
Please tell us where you’re from, so that we rubes can move there and maybe smarten up. Meanwhile, I hope you continue to expose yourself on this site. You did a great job in this thread.
I’m a Canadian Marcus and I had no idea that my remarks would hurt your vanity so badly. But it’s true about Americans continually dredging up that old constitution isn’t it!
And it’s not limited to one incident as you are trying to suggest. It’s ongoing to the point of making it abundantly clear that your country is completely corrupted by partisan politics.
Your supreme court is the laughing stock of the entire world. Your elections are rigged. And your president is a psychopath. A constitution?
Just what part of your constitution hasn’t been flaunted or ignored by one side or the other of your poliltical divide?
Your constitution even faciliates the slaughter of your children in their schools by the gungoons it empowers! Am I missing something equally as important?
How about the way it forbids a president from starting his own wars without the approval of congress?
Anything else Marcus?
Don, please revisit my original comment. It makes all your subsequent blather even more tiresome and irrelevant.
Canadian, eh? I suspected as much. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but the last thing in the world that could hurt me–or my alleged vanity–is a Canadian.
Don’s rhetoric may be annoying to you, but he has a point. It seems that every time the government, and especially the deep state, overstep its bounds, a few tiny voices pipe up “b-b-b-but the Constitution” and are subsequently ignored, along with that precious Constitution. They don’t play by their own rules until someone forces them to. how do you intend to force them? Any suggestions?
“They don’t play by their own rules…”
My one and only point. At least you got it. (They call this section “comments” for a reason.)
If I had any suggestions, I would have made them in the first place.
Which brings up an interesting fact that isn’t going to be popular with a lot of people who read and comment on this site.
Obama found the mechanism that worked to stop a war on Syria. He knew putting the responsibility on the US congress would be a strategy that would work. Not to mention that he and Putin actually did convince Assad to get rid of his chem/bio weapons.
The reason why is well known to most Americans. The US congress exists to be re-elected.
ON the bright side, if Walter is on safe grounds opposing Trump’s actions last night then that’s at least progress. Likely he’s not. It just sounds like he doesn’t need to be re-elected? Just a guess.
“Obama found the mechanism that worked to stop a war on Syria. He knew putting the responsibility on the US congress would be a strategy that would work.”
Not quite. He stumbled into a situation where the majority of Congress was loudly demanding to be part of the decision making process. This only happened after the British Parliament rebelled against their own PM and voted down his equivalent of an AUMF. Apparently, there was enough public pressure on Congress to almost certainly vote Obama down as well, even as his administration continually rattled on about not needing Congress. Unfortunately, Putin saved his sorry ass from having to test his “unitary executive”-like theory by proposing to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, a totally unnecessary move. In the end, it did neither Russia nor Syria any good.
100% right, AG. Obama only went to congress when he realized “the actual people” were against bombing Syria. This would relieve him of pressure from the establishment for not doing anything when he supposedly drew his sorry-assed “line in the sand.” Notice (Don) Obama didn’t run to ask permission from congress for the war in Libya (currently still under US “management”).
Trump struck Syria purely for domestic reasons. The media & Congress won’t hassle a “war president” who does their bidding.
Not a bad theory and there’s no disputing it’s paid off well for Trump’s popularity.
But in reality, it’s been planned for quite some time. Obama wouldn’t allow the mission on Syria and Iran to be accomplished on his watch and so that made it a certainty that it wouldn’t take long on Trump’s watch.
But still, one can’t help thinking that Trump was completely oblivious to the reality of what was happening as he made an a-s of himself with his racist preoccupation on Arab hate.
It’s a tossup on whether Trump or Bush2 is the most braindead leader any country has ever elected.
While the rest of the world has long ago decided that Obama is the best the US is ever going to get.
As proposed in another article, symbolism is really damned important. It is what might be the only and closest to RealPolitik account we the peasants are going to get from the government. Which itself is a symbol because of the really convoluted relations between Federal, State, and Local governments and the Uniform Code of Military Justice just takes the others far into a hallucinogenic trip. Even the word Propaganda comes from the usage in Catholic Latin and literally means “spreading seeds”, and Broadcasting, bring the Fourth Estate into the mix, is the Saxon way of saying the same concept.
Let us meditate on this, class… especially when the inevitable complaints about the MSM start whining like a siren.
We need more politicians like Jones to stand up for the U.S and it’s constitution rather then the Zionist military industrial complex. A true patriot.