Posted on 07/08/2008 11:42:31 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The president should be forced by law to consult Congress before going to war, a bipartisan panel including several prominent former U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
The commission led by former Secretaries of State James Baker, a Republican, and Warren Christopher, a Democrat, aimed to clarify the cloudy division between the White House and the U.S. Congress over the power to conduct war.
The panel proposed a new law -- the "War Powers Consultation Act" -- that would require the president to consult with Congress before deploying U.S. troops into "significant armed conflict," defined as combat operations lasting, or expected to last, more than a week.
Disputes over the unpopular Iraq war have revived constitutional arguments about the limits of congressional and presidential war powers. Under the Constitution, Congress declares war and controls funding, but the president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
President George W. Bush got congressional authorization in 2002 for the Iraq war. It was unclear whether the law proposed on Tuesday would have changed that outcome.
The proposed law would require Congress to vote on a resolution of approval or disapproval. But it would not require the president to win lawmakers' consent. The president could simply veto a congressional resolution of disapproval and continue combat operations.
"This new statute could give us a new day of consultation between the president and the Congress," Christopher said.
With the presidential campaign to elect a successor to Bush in November well under way, it was doubtful there would be any congressional action on the proposal especially in light of the Democrats' failure so far to alter the president's war conduct.
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
methinks more than a few on both sides of the aisle have a deathwish for this nation and are prepared to go to any length to accomplish it. jmo
The only way to force the President to do anything in regards to the military would be to change the Constitution. We already have the War Powers Act long ignored by Presidents of both parties.
This is stupid.
Congress twice voted for war in Iraq.
If this law is intended to prevent Congress from voting for war, it completely misses the mark.
Congress was consulted and voted for war twice.
Are these guys so stupid they think they can change that?
That's the long-term goal.
We already have the War Powers Act long ignored by Presidents of both parties.
Rightly so.
Congress has the Power of the Purse. If they really, really, really don't want a war they can refuse to fund it.
L
These guys were cabinet officials?
I don’t think we need a law for Congress to give its opinion to the President.
The can give 535 opinions, and do.
They could give one opinion telling the President exactly what to do. But don’t. Any Congress can stop any war any day it wants, simply by legislating it to stop, and defunding it to stop. They did this in 1974 but don’t have the spine or unity to do so in 2008. That’s why we have an executive office — to act while Congress pontificates.
Screw Baker and Christopher and the Depends-equipped pony they rode in on.
Those two globalist phuckwits need to just go enjoy the buffet and then finish their damn shufleboard game.
Baker, what a putz. This guy should know better.
We can’t agree on anything in Congress, and this guy thinks that running a war by committee is a great idea.
The Executive Branch holds that power. It holds it for a reason. Presidents don’t act without talking to folks on both sides of the isle. And that’s all there needs to be.
Congress can vote to shut down a war campaign easily if it wants to, and the consensus is there. And that is how it should be.
Baker, you really need to go away.
What a waste of time.
Do these people have anything else better to do with their time?
Put that thinking to better use by figuring out how to make the price of gasoline cheaper.
Congress critters always claims that the Executive branch impede the constitutional powers of the Legislative branch of government, but it’s usually the other way around.
So on the advice of Jimmy Baker—one of the worlds great RINOS—we should ignore executive powers as delineated in the Constitution. No thank you.
No way! There comes a time when 1 person has to make a decision and we have to abide by it.
I wouldn't trust a congressional committee to make a decision like this.
What's a camel? A horse designed by a committee.
The proposed law would require Congress to vote on a resolution of approval or disapproval. But it would not require the president to win lawmakers' consent. The president could simply veto a congressional resolution of disapproval and continue combat operations.
So if the POTUS can ignore what congress does per this new law, then this law does exactly.. what? Give Durbin & Schumer more face time on C-SPAN to call our troops Nazis?
Sheesh, if they want to be 'series' just pass a law that Congress MUST formally Declare War before the POTUS can send troops into harms way. If its declaring war against Al-Qaeda, Botswana, Iran, Hamas or the Gambino crime family so be it. Go on record with a vote, yae or nay, and be done with it.
They may as well, because Billy Jeff showed the War Powers Act is toothless when it came to his little Balkan War. He ignored that, the Dem's sacred cow called the U.N. and utterly bastardized NATO's Charter and purpose in using them against Serbia Yugoslavia. (talk about an 'Illegal War', that was it, in spades.)
I often wonder if the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be won already if Congress *had* declared war. We would have had (hopefully) clear objectoves and a national will and mandate to win. Instead we have namby-pamby Bush trying to win it on the cheap and basically doing just enough not to win, all the while prolongoing it so the Kleptocrats line their pockets.
They are all traitors in my book
“Can we “whip the ****” out of Iran in a week?
That’s what I was thinking.
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