TIME TO REVISIT THE WAR POWERS ACT

What a great opportunity for Congress to rework the “War Powers Act”. This thing with Syria is important and happens to be going the right way for President Obama, which creates a good climate for Congress to take up the matter of the War powers Act of 1941; actually, it is the War Powers Resolution of 1973:

"The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."

The world has changed dramatically as the terrorist war after 9/11 has made so clear. Warfare is no longer great armies and navies facing one another under the command of generals who make both strategic and tactical decisions on the battlefield. Presidents violate international boundaries almost with impunity as our drone attack in a large number of countries indicates. It is no longer just one countries national interest against another countries national interest, one religion against another, or a huge country against a small country. The United Nations plays a role but the Security Council is in the hands of the most powerful nations.

We cannot define what constitutes the difference between armed aggressions or when our national interests are threatened in a cyber attack for example. How can Congress declare war if they do not know what the word means or the president decide what constitutes and attack or a national emergency?  Congress called for Obama to act but when he did, they said in violated the law; he was guilty of war crimes when a teenager and non-combatants died from drone attacks. Progressive such as +Chris Hayes and +Rachel Maddow were crying that he was a war criminal while Washington was saying he was responding to a national emergency.

It makes me shutter to think of the people we now have in congress deciding our future but may be they would be wise enough to go to the universities and colleges and seek advice. For me the most important ingredient would be that we have an intellectual president and not like Bill O’Reilly once wished out loud, “We don’t want another intellectual for president, we want Bush”.

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