Iraq War also belongs to the Congress elected to stop Bush
Robert Zaller
Issue date: 1/11/08 Section: Ed-Op
That preempted not only congress' peace-making authority, but its control of the purse as well, since the failure to challenge it committed congress to an open-ended funding of the war.
Technically, congress still passed appropriations bills, although the atomic bomb, America's first black book operation, was built without the authorization or even the knowledge of the legislative branch, and, to all intents and purposes, Roosevelt had a blank check to pursue his war to a conclusion defined by him alone.
The same scenario has been played out in subsequent wars, including the present ones.
Both President Bushes have denied that a congressional declaration of war is even a constitutional requirement.
George H. W. Bush stopped the Gulf War after 100 hours, a decision that subsequently proved controversial but was never debated, much less challenged, in the congress.
George W. Bush envisions an open-ended 'war against terror' in which Iraq, like Afghanistan, is merely a theater of operations. This is the Orwellian prospect of a permanent war against shape-shifting opponents that would redefine the presidency as a war-making office as such, and the position of commander-in-chief as a Caesarean command post that trumps all constitutional restraint. It is the nightmare of the founding fathers come true.
It is in this context that we must examine the events of the past year.
The "surge" in Iraq, really only a ramped-up version of a strategy that had already failed there, was completely contrary both to public sentiment and senior military judgment.
The president got his way nonetheless, thanks to his success in promoting a politically ambitious general who had already shown his constitutional unfitness for command by electioneering for Bush in 2004.
This nefarious alliance has received all too little comment. A president in need of a general found a general in need of a president (for a fourth star). Before this duo, all other political actors and institutions fell away.
Technically, congress still passed appropriations bills, although the atomic bomb, America's first black book operation, was built without the authorization or even the knowledge of the legislative branch, and, to all intents and purposes, Roosevelt had a blank check to pursue his war to a conclusion defined by him alone.
The same scenario has been played out in subsequent wars, including the present ones.
Both President Bushes have denied that a congressional declaration of war is even a constitutional requirement.
George H. W. Bush stopped the Gulf War after 100 hours, a decision that subsequently proved controversial but was never debated, much less challenged, in the congress.
George W. Bush envisions an open-ended 'war against terror' in which Iraq, like Afghanistan, is merely a theater of operations. This is the Orwellian prospect of a permanent war against shape-shifting opponents that would redefine the presidency as a war-making office as such, and the position of commander-in-chief as a Caesarean command post that trumps all constitutional restraint. It is the nightmare of the founding fathers come true.
It is in this context that we must examine the events of the past year.
The "surge" in Iraq, really only a ramped-up version of a strategy that had already failed there, was completely contrary both to public sentiment and senior military judgment.
The president got his way nonetheless, thanks to his success in promoting a politically ambitious general who had already shown his constitutional unfitness for command by electioneering for Bush in 2004.
This nefarious alliance has received all too little comment. A president in need of a general found a general in need of a president (for a fourth star). Before this duo, all other political actors and institutions fell away.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Kristin Sherman
posted 1/14/08 @ 7:24 PM EST
Seems like the american goverment has just turned into a bunch of money hungry monsters. Impeaching bush that would be a dream come true,that will not, his intentions were only to ruin this US'S land of the free, were no longer free. (Continued…)
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