Parliament rejects PM's request to censure Syria for use of chemical weapons.

[No Elephants]

During the 8-hour debate, it was established that there is no "smoking" gun type evidence.

Parliament debates eight hours on whether to censure Syria.


Our feckless Congress (or most of them) leave in place an unconstitutional authorizing the President to decide on his own whether to start a war.


But, No Elephants, you say, the administration of the equal rights law lecturer has said it believes the law to be constitutional. Obviously, Congress thought it was constitutional, or Congress would not have passed it. So, two branches of government believe it to be Constitutional. No disrespect, but who the hell are you to say otherwise.

Well, I'm someone who can read. I'm someone who does not make big bucks or get re-elected whenever the nation is at war.

The Constitution clearly puts the POTUS in charge of both foreign policy (though McCain seems not to have gotten that memo)and the military.

Yet, the Constitution also clearly says that Congress declares war, not the POTUS.

Given how short the Constitution was when first presented to the nation for ratification, we must make inferences. From the way that the Constitution allocated powers, I infer that the Framers felt very strongly that the CIC should not commence a war on his own.

War commits blood (our children, rarely those of the POTUS, Lincoln and FDR aside). War commits treasure. Our tax money.

Don't you really want that decision in the hands of many people, some of whom you can vote against in two to six years, rather than in the hands of a lone POTUS, who may be a lame duck under the term limit amendment to the Constitution?

Don't you want the debate on committing our children's lives and limbs and our tax dollars to be a public record, as the Constitution says proceedings of the House and Senate need to be, rather than behind closed doors of the Oval Office, protected by broad "Executive Privilege," something that the Framers did not even know about?

I know I do. And, clearly the Framers did.