Posted on 01/23/2016 6:17:45 AM PST by Kaslin
The speed of the news cycle and the media obsession with the presidential horseraces have crowded out a crucial development in the war on ISIS and related Islamic jihadist groups.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has been sounding out colleagues for a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). The current AUMF, which was written in 2001 and targeted groups connected to 9/11, has not been renewed. Believe it or not.
Bravo for Paul Ryan's statesmanship. But a new AUMF must be accompanied by a clear U.S. declaration of war against ISIS. We will never destroy them without a full-blown war declaration.
Now, there are important details regarding the AUMF. Ryan is correctly opposed to the Obama White House ISIS strategy, which would bar widespread use of U.S. combat troops in Syria and Iraq and would place limits on the length of military options. Sound familiar? It's Iraq and Afghanistan all over again. The new speaker won't stand for it. Good for him.
The White House wants to forbid "boots on the ground" and wishes to prohibit "enduring offensive ground combat operations." The use of Special Forces would be allowed, but that would expire after three years. In other words, Team Obama would tie the hands of the U.S. military and send all the wrong signals to our enemies.
But if the Republicans in the House and Senate show some backbone, they can get an AUMF without all the Obama prohibitions. Heaven forbid the Joint Chiefs be able to run a war.
This brings me back to the key point. In his pursuit of a new AUMF, Speaker Ryan must seek a formal U.S. declaration of war against ISIS. It is extraordinary that this has yet to be done. It should have happened 15 months ago, or surely after the horrific terrorist events in Paris.
I cannot understand why the president has yet to call an emergency NATO meeting to declare war on the Islamic State -- which, by the way, has declared war on us.
But our president wants no part of that. Remember the Obama reelection-campaign narrative? Terrorism has been defeated and is no longer a problem. So how can you declare war on something that is not a problem?
Retired four-star general Michael Flynn, a recent head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said, "I don't think enough people in our country see ISIS for what it is, and I think part of that is because our leadership has really denied the fact of who this is that we are facing . . . I think they failed to tell the truth."
The fact is, this is the greatest national security problem of our time. ISIS attacks from Europe to California have tragically proved that again and again.
So, how can it be that the Washington leadership has not produced a war declaration which would surely rally the American people? A war declaration adds urgency, energy, and immediacy to the war.
What's more, a war declaration would be a forcing device, outlining the American strategy with respect to the Islamic State and terrorism in general. What is it we want? How will we know when we get it? How does the war end? How long do we stay? What are our postwar intentions?
These are a few of the questions that must be asked and answered so that the American people will know what the American government intends to do. In this way, a war resolution will not only underscore the importance of this conflict, it also will help rally Americans to the cause.
It's a question of leadership, really. It's a question of commander-in-chief.
It's a question of congressional responsibility.
And it's a question for the presidential candidates in both parties. Answer it, please.
The White House and Congress must be truthful with the American people. No more pulling punches. A war will be a war, with the availability of all of our resources on land and in the air, and with the unfortunate reality of collateral damage in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere. The great American military understands that costs must be suffered if American freedom is to be protected.
As retired four-star general and former Army vice chief Jack Keane recently told Congress, "There is no substitute for an effective ground force supported by air power. Air power is an enabler, not a defeat mechanism."
So we must do whatever it takes to destroy ISIS. Right now, it's not clear that the U.S. is winning.
This is both national security and homeland security. But we will not win this war unless we take the battle -- in full force and without limits -- to ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The best way to protect the homeland is to utterly destroy our enemies where they live.
I agree, BUT, I would never in a MILLION years give Obama presidential war time powers.
ISIS is Islam, and Islam declared war on the Great Satan that is the United States DECADES ago.
We just need to show up at the party, and it will be on. No fancy paperwork need be processed.
I would not allow our service people to be sabotaged by the “Progressives”.
I will never forget when the Iraq war began, they declared it a ‘quagmire’ from the start. Harry Reid said, ‘The war is lost’ when the surge just began.
NEVER AGAIN. The enemy within.
A declaration of war was needed the day after 9/11. Because 9/11 was simply another Pearl Harbor. But Bush II decided on a weird nation-building police action instead. Say what you want about FDR, but we needed an FDR the day after 9/11. We sure didn’t get one.
We will never destroy ISIS until Hussein stops calling it ISIL. Plus we would have to destroy Islam.
Kerry calls it "Daesh", which eliminates any reference to Islam.
Declaration of war on Barry and Hillary. They created ISIS.
Enemies foreign. Enemies domestic.
You got that right
No one should.
No. Declarations of War are words.
We will never destroy empowered Sunni Islam without a 60-80 Division expeditionary force and a prolonged (approximately) 50 year occupation.
ISIS is Islam, and Islam declared war
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On the rest of humanity in 622 A.D.
John Quincy Adams on Islam
In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust, by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE.
Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. That war is yet flagrant; nor can it cease but by the extinction of that imposture, which has been permitted by Providence to prolong the degeneracy of man. While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men. The hand of Ishmael will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. It is, indeed, amongst the mysterious dealings of God, that this delusion should have been suffered for so many ages, and during so many generations of human kind, to prevail over the doctrines of the meek and peaceful and benevolent
I cannot understand why the president has yet to call an emergency NATO meeting to declare war on the Islamic State...McCain, Obama and Hillary organized them, armed them and called them ‘Moderate’ Islamists. McCain had pictures taken, dined with them and suggested to his Security they might spend the night with them (until Security put heir foot down and hustled him out of there). So now we are gonna declare war on a non-government?
2banana’s take:
Defeating the Abu Bakr al Baghdadi Gang: A Realistic Strategy
A modest proposal.
And we can never win the war util we admot it is not about ISIS but about Islam.......
BTTT
I don’t know why you’re complaining? WWII was the last was the last war declared by Congress. You are ignoring that President Bush went before Congress and the UN, while that arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave just does as he pleases
Destruction does not win wars. Enemy submission wins wars.
Compelling the submission of the populations of Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sunni Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Pakistan is going to involve a lot more than big holes in the ground.
Another thing that might help us defeat ISIS would be to NOT have one of their people as our president and commander of the US military.
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