This was a post from two years ago, May 17, 2016:
There are men running governments who shouldn’t be allowed to play with matches.
—Will Rogers
At least Trump paid some attention to his military advisors about Syria, but as The Atlantic article The Unconstitutional Strike on Syria says, according to the constitution only Congress has the authority to start a war:
Trump did not have the authority to order any kind of strike on Syria. Congressional authorization was needed before any use of force against Syria; Friday’s attack was unconstitutional. And his pledge that the United States “is prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents”—that is, a unilateral declaration of long-range war aims and a pledge of long-term military involvement—is about as gross a violation of the Constitution as I can think of.
The fact that Trump ordered a one-off missile strike a year ago doesn’t change that calculation. The fact that almost no one in Congress spoke up when he did doesn’t change that calculation. The fact that foreign-policy commentators fawned on that decision doesn’t change that calculation. The Constitution still requires congressional authorization for an attack on another country. The requirement is not a formality. It is in the Constitution for a reason. Congress’s failure to assert its prerogatives is—even though it may have become a craven habit—a matter of life or death for a self-governing republic.
You can’t blame just Trump for the current mess.
that is true. he is outrageous and he gets the press.
is anyone playing by the rules anymore?
congress should know better. supposedly unlike him they DO know what they’re doing or at least if it’s against the constitution. it’s amazing really.
he’s probably thinking “shock and awe.” it’s his type of wording.
which was another mess. but at least congress had approved. good grief.
The interesting thing is Obama wasn’t nearly as criticized when he exceeded his constitutional powers as he was when he asked Congress for permission to attack Syria after they used chemical weapons. This National Review article, Operational-Level Strikes Finally Enforce Obama’s Red Line, says we should celebrate what Trump has just done. It’s a welcome departure from “Obama-era analysis paralysis in Syria.”
Scary stuff.
I tried to make some sense of what is going on in Syria just a few minutes ago and read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War
My head is still reeling and I wonder where it will all end.
I’ve browsed your link Rummuser – but it seems such a mess – and doesn’t seem there will be an end…as even when “peace is negotiated” something always seem to tip it back into non-peace…
I didn’t even know there had been this recent incident until one of the other retreaters mentioned that she has seen news on her phone…apparently others in her group talked about it, but I heard it only in passing. And I wouldn’t have known what to say anyway…
Yes, it’s been an impossible mess for a long time and there is no way to win — too many different factions. That’s why Obama was trying to get out of it, and why Trump wants to get out too.