Congressional Debriefing: Some lawmakers question quick approval of military action

[alp227]

Before the U.S. military attacked Saddam Hussein’s forces in 1991, Congress spent months considering its approval of the war. Twelve years later, another attack on Iraq came after three weeks of debate and intensive negotiations.

But this week, the House and Senate each took only a few hours to sign off on President Obama’s plan to once again deploy the military in the Middle East, approving it as part of a broader budget bill before bounding out of town for a two-month recess and hitting the midterm campaign trail.

Some on Capitol Hill were stunned by the seeming congressional disinterest on a matter of such importance. Now, lawmakers in both parties are asking an uncomfortable question: Has Congress forfeited its rightful role in the most solemn of all national decisions?

Some in leadership have said a more expansive debate over U.S. actions against the Islamic State militant group might come after the Nov. 4 elections. Yet a few dozen lawmakers are starting to speak up, complaining that such vague promises are not enough and that Congress has a duty to set the parameters of the nation’s new war posture.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congressional-debriefing-some-lawmakers-question-quick-approval-of-military-action/2014/09/19/d652b060-4022-11e4-9587-5dafd96295f0_story.html

[bvf]

1. Yes.

"Has Congress forfeited its rightful role in the most solemn of all national decisions?"

In a word: Yes.

As a group these clowns remind me of a large roomful of Rodney Dangerfields as the sitcom dad in "Natural Born Killers" yelling "Kill the fucking Indian!" at the wrestling match on TV.

Sorry, but that's my image of a lot of these people. Thanks for the saner minds among them, but hey, I'm not optimistic.

[delrem]

2. This reads as if the vast majority of them are frustrated, irritable

about being rubber stamps for the MIC, for the 1%, and just *have no time* for the job any more, unless absolutely forced to go to work on some sham deliberations.

Even E. Warren seems to have no time for making connections between USA foreign policy, which is ultra-concerned with hot war, with expanding fields for bombings, for drone strikes, some "secret" and some not, with "regime changings" as in Libya and now explicitly announced as the US intention for Syria, and internal US economic policy. As if these two didn't feed off each other.

[MisterP]

5. hey, any line of fracture is a good one for the 99.9% of us on this planet!

[CJCRANE]

3. Congress are AWOL

on this issue.

[ReRe]

4. Looks like it's getting easier and easier....

... for the Intel agencies to persuade and trump up wars. The sooner people start understanding that Intel agencies are nothing but the salesmen for the MIC and that war is a f***ing racket, the better off this country is going to be. This has become more and more clear to me as this week's episodes of "The Roosevelts" have passed by. This isn't WWI or WWII. ISIS (or whatever flavor of name they are giving it today) is not Hitler!