The First Lie

[Q]

Published on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 by TomPaine.com

The First Lie
by John C. Bonifaz

While all of the Democratic presidential candidates (except Sen. Joseph Lieberman) criticize President George W. Bush for his unilateral recklessness in starting a war against Iraq, they are missing a larger point: The invasion was not just reckless. It was unconstitutional.

It is time to set the record straight. The United States Congress never voted for the Iraq war. Rather, Congress voted for a resolution in October 2002 which unlawfully transferred to the president the decision-making power of whether to launch a first-strike invasion of Iraq. The United States Constitution vests the awesome power of deciding whether to send the nation into war solely in the United States Congress. Those members of Congress-including certain Democratic presidential candidates-who voted for that October resolution cannot now claim that they were deceived, as some of them do. By unlawfully ceding the war-declaring power to the president, they allowed the president to start a war against Iraq based on whatever evidence or whatever lies he chose. The members of Congress who voted for that October resolution are as complicit in this illegal war as is the president himself.

Imagine this: The United States Congress passes a resolution which states: "The President is authorized to levy an income tax on the people of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to pay for subsidies to U.S. oil companies." No amount of legal wrangling could make such a resolution constitutional. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants the power to levy taxes exclusively to the United States Congress. Now let us turn to reality. In October 2002, Congress passed a resolution which stated: "The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to 1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and 2) enforce all relevant United States Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq." As he determines to be necessary and appropriate.

Congress cannot transfer to the president its exclusive power to declare war any more than it can transfer its exclusive power to levy taxes. Such a transfer is illegal. These are non-delegable powers held only by the United States Congress.

In drafting the War Powers Clause of Article I, Section 8, the framers of the Constitution set out to create a nation that would be nothing like the model established by European monarchies. They knew the dangers of empowering a single individual to decide whether to send the nation into war. They had sought to make a clean break from the kings and queens of Europe, those rulers who could, of their own accord, send their subjects into battle. That is why the framers wisely decided that only the people, through their elected representatives in Congress, should be entrusted with the power to start a war.

Continues: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0128-08.htm

[mike1963]

1. We all know (here anyway) it was unconstitutional but we don't get to

decide. How do you think the SC would rule?
:eyes:

[Q]

3. Don't know about the SC...

...but I do know that our representatives can't decide on their own to circumvent the Constitution and still pretend America is a democracy.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. in a nut shell!

[library_max]

2. I'm not 100% sure of the point of this thread.

If it's to identify the "first lie" in the long quotation, I vote for this sentence: "The members of Congress who voted for that October resolution are as complicit in this illegal war as is the president himself."

It's a lie because the president had access to all the intelligence and the members did not. It's a lie because the president at least encouraged his staff and sources to cook the intelligence and the members did not. It's a lie because the IWR was not a declaration of war and did not require the president to invade under any circumstances. The IWR was a fraud perpetrated by the president and his staff against the Congress, and the decision to invade was the president's and his alone.

[Dhalgren]

5. By giving up the authority to declare war in the case of Iraq,

the congress (all those who voted for it) became complicit in whatever Bush eventually did. If Bush somehow broke the law, as writen in this resolution, then why isn't he being impeached for it?

[library_max]

6. Bush had the Constitutional authority to make Pickering a recess appointee

Does that mean it was right? Is everything Bush does right unless he actually breaks a law? Geez, talk about setting the bar under the floor!

[tom_paine]

9. Because the Imperial Family and their Stooges are above the law

Haven't you noticed?

For a more nuts and bolts explanation, the people in charge of the law enforcement required to act on this are either already Bushevik Loyalists (might as well wait for Himmler to indict Hitler and Goebbels) or in the case of Congress, are peopled by frightened out-of-power Dems who didn't even do much when they wer briefly In power thanks to the Hero Jeffords.

They fear Bushevik retaliation, whether it merely be a 24/7 blast or two from the Party-Loyal Right-Wing Sub-Media's Mighty Wurlitzer to an envelope full of anthrax to the ultimate, a Wellstoning, Baxterizing, or Kelly-ing.

In any case, they fear to act for both their professional and literal lives.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

10. hmmm good arguement...but Byrd warned of this for hours on the floor

imho the dems that voted yes knowingly abdicated....

[Cleita]

4. The gangsters that are running our government now have

no use for the laws or precepts set out in a Constitution and specifically our Constitution. It's been obvious from the beginning that this administration has only one purpose in mind and that is to loot the Treasury of the United States and the taxpayer of as much money as they can stuff their pockets with until the candy store is empty.

I feel that those candidates who voted for the war resolution knew there were no WMDs, but they voted because they thought their constituency wanted regime change in the Middle East. IMHO. How wrong they were and I hope I don't have to vote for one of them in November.

[NoKingGeorge]

7. The SC would not deny this long standing device.

Politics are as real an arm of government as any other. Secondly, I saw the request as giving the slow-one* a base ball bat to SHOW the UN that he had support. The slow-one betrayed Congress by then actualley using the bat for more than display purposes.