Are we at war in Niger, too? Do our “representatives” in Congress know?
The answer to the first question is, obviously, yes. The answer to the second is, admittedly, no.
Yesterday, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd asked hawkish Sen. Lindsey Graham (R‑S.C.) what the four U.S. soldiers ambushed and killed weeks ago were doing in Niger. “I can say this to the families,” Sen. Graham offered, “they were there to defend America,” before conceding that, “[W]e don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world militarily and what we’re doing.”
Oh.
Graham acknowledged he had been unaware U.S. military forces were even in the African country. And still hasn’t “been briefed.” Later in the program, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑N.Y.) also confessed his profound ignorance … before reading in the newspaper about the deaths of four soldiers there.
Still, Sen. Graham expressed great hope that Sen. John McCain (R‑Ariz.) could “create a new system” to ensure that “if somebody gets killed there, that we won’t find out about it in the paper.”
Huh?
Doesn’t Congress’s job description include something about debating and deciding on policies, providing funding, and checking executive power?
Not, surely, cuddling in ignorance and burping up pablum.
Cradled in their long-term careers, our congressional delegates neither debate, deliberate, nor oversee much of anything.
In any case, we can be sure that Congress’s role in our constitutional system is not to scoop reporters to war news.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
