People change.
George W. Bush won the presidency pledging a dose of “humility” in our foreign policy and forswearing the temptation to rebuild failed foreign states. But after the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq … followed by even more deadly and difficult nation-building efforts.
Presidential powers expanded.
Along came Barack Obama, the peace candidate. His advantage in winning the 2008 Democratic Party nomination was his unequivocal opposition to the Iraq War. Meanwhile, then-Senator, now Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton had voted to give Bush congressional approval to launch that war.
During the campaign, Obama recognized constitutional limits on the commander-in-chief: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
But as president, Mr. Obama launched air strikes against Libya without congressional authorization. In fact, he refused to even report to Congress as required by law.
And then last week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R‑Ala.) asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, “Do you think that you can act, without Congress, and initiate a no-fly zone in Syria, without congressional approval?”
“Our goal would be to seek international permission,” Panetta replied, and then added, “and we would come to the Congress and inform you and determine how best to approach this.”
A republic? America goes to war on the order of one man: Emperor Obama.
But empires change. Past empires rarely asked foreign permission for their military adventures.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
9 replies on “Emperor Obama”
The assumption that Senator Sessions was making in that quetion is that Presbo is acting without Congress.
That is NOT true.
He is acting WITH Congress, having a lock on the Senate, with the Senate loyal to party, and not to the states, and not to the Constitution, and not to their oath of office.
The true question is whether and for how long he will act without the approval of the states or the American people without a military force to support him and without having yet formed that powerful civilian policing force that he was so enamored of.
Empires only ask for permission when they have been defeated.
Great comment by Drik, I had not yet heard the phrase PRESBO, has an nice ring to it – like a California beach. Recent attention have I paid to the Tenth Amendment Center, which reports that Virginia legislature has overwhelmingly passed nullification of NDAA offending provisions (IDWOT – indefinite detention without trial). Many more states presumed to be following shortly.
Another point I recently saw: Ron Paul will completely destroy PRESBO if RP is the nominee. Which is why the media is so desperate to suppress the Freedom Philosophy leader. PRESBO and are stepping in some deep doodoo.
bw
Site admin: Still having trouble with the href tag. Are you sure the syntax is correct? I believe it bracketed incorrectly and deleted some text.
While it’s true the Mussolini-modeled one has the look and the air about him of a sovereign — or at the very least of a dictator — I don’t believe our beloved fraternal republic has as yet acquired an empire.
So better make that “king,” I suppose.
Although a king whose Michelle-Antoinette is on the public record as having marked him neither to be trusted nor relied upon to get the cap back on the toothpaste, who sat twenty years in the halls of a barking mad, envy, hatred and rage spewing Marxist-“theologian” and never heard a word that was said there and who has no reliable recollection of the murderous terrorist intimate who wrote his “auto”-biography?
That’ll likely be a first, eh?
Mr. Wright, admin here — did I fix your comment correctly? There was no end to the href tag, so your whole comment got mushed.
I despise Obama. But, in my view, Ron Paul would be the same ( not with wars,necessarily, but trying to or bypass(ing) Congress to impose his views.
The Congress created (granted, at the behest of the administrations, at the time-Carter for Energy; not sure who for Education) and the president (as far as I know, ) cannot unilaterally dismantle agencies.
Ditto a ‚lot of his other ideas.
Jacob’s point is that Obama’s actions don’t match his rhetoric on the wars. To be fair, he finally took the troops out of Iraq (well past his promised time) only to move most of them to Afghanistan (where he tripled troop levels).
But what our troops tell us, is contrary to what our politicians are telling us. And what the troops are saying, is get them out of Afghanistan because it reduces our national security by creating more terrorists, emptying our treasury, and leading to the loss of soldiers’ lives.
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