New Declaration of Worldwide War Without End

[Discord]

http://www.aclu.org/new-authorization-worldwide-war-without-end

Congress may soon vote on a new declaration of worldwide war without end, and without clear enemies. A “sleeper provision” deep inside defense bills pending before Congress could become the single biggest hand-over of unchecked war authority from Congress to the executive branch in modern American history.



President Obama has not sought new war authority. In fact, his administration has made clear that it believes it already has all of the authority that it needs to fight terrorism.



But Congress is considering monumental new legislation that would grant the president – and all presidents after him – sweeping new power to make war almost anywhere and everywhere. Unlike previous grants of authority for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the proposed legislation would allow a president to use military force wherever terrorism suspects are present in the world, regardless of whether there has been any harm to U.S. citizens, or any attack on the United States, or any imminent threat of an attack. The legislation is broad enough to permit a president to use military force within the United States and against American citizens. The legislation contains no expiration date, and no criteria to determine when a president’s authority to use military force would end.



Of all of the powers that the Constitution assigns to Congress, no power is more fundamental or important than the power “to declare War.” That is why, in 2002, when Congress was considering whether to authorize war in Iraq, it held fifteen hearings, and passed legislation that cited specific harms, set limits, and defined a clear objective. Now, Congress is poised to give unchecked authority to the executive branch to use military force worldwide, with profoundly negative consequences for our fundamental democratic system of checks and balances. Once Congress expands the president’s war power, it will be nearly impossible to rein it back in. The ACLU strongly opposes a wholesale turnover of war power from Congress to the president – and all of his successors.

Yeah, seriously. It's pretty scary that our own government has so much authority, no?

 

[Evil Eye]

Yeah... that's pretty scary all right o.o

So much for democracy.

 

[Discord]

Yeah... that's pretty scary all right o.o

So much for democracy.

Yeah, representative democracy mostly sucks.

 

[Cranos]

Politics in the US seem to become more and more insane every day. 0_o

 

[DrLeftover]

Funny how the same language, more or less, with buzzwords like homeland security and terrorism and all, in the bill for the last few years didn't raise the same firestorm on the left, unless the power to take preemptive action or act as the world's policeman.



Of course it is a bad idea to move the power to Declare War is a bad idea, but the War Powers Act essentially comes down to the same thing. At least it does to the troops on the ground. My step-son has done tours of both Iraq and Afghanistan, to him an official declaration didn't seem to make any difference.



The new bills may actually come down to the endless war provision. I'm still looking through what's available from the defense bills to see.



Just nobody noticed when it was the Dems in charge of both houses.