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If The U.S. Is Giving Ukraine Real-Time Battlefield Intel, Congress Needs To Vote On It
The Federalist ^ | MAY 06, 2022 | JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON

Posted on 05/07/2022 11:04:27 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

It’s not too much to ask that Congress debate and vote on whether to authorize a U.S. march to war that’s now well underway.

The New York Times claimed this week that the United States is providing real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine that has enabled the Ukrainians to target and kill approximately a dozen Russian generals, and helped >locate and strike the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet last month.

Described as a “classified effort,” the U.S. provision of targeting intelligence to Ukraine “also includes anticipated Russian troop movements gleaned from recent American assessments of Moscow’s secret battle plan for the fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine,” according to the Times.

The Times’ reporting relies on anonymous “senior American officials,” but if true it represents a sharp and unprecedented escalation of U.S. involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war, such that Congress should immediately debate and vote on whether to authorize the use of military force in Ukraine.

Indeed, providing real-time targeting intelligence brings the United States right up to the line of belligerence, and arguably over it. The Biden administration seems to understand this. According to the Times, the administration “has sought to keep much of the battlefield intelligence secret, out of fear it will be seen as an escalation and provoke President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into a wider war.”

The White House is right to fear this outcome, because it’s entirely possible that Putin will absolutely consider this level of battlefield participation by the United States tantamount to an act of war. That’s no doubt why the Biden administration snapped into damage control mode after the Times story about targeting intelligence published on Wednesday.

(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; Russia; US: New York
KEYWORDS: bloggertrash; businessinsider; chechens; chechnya; hateamericafirst; johndanieldavidson; johnhaltiwanger; johnsipher; michaelmcfaul; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; pedosforputin; putin; putinlovertrollsonfr; putinsbuttboys; putinworshippers; russia; russianaggression; scottritter; ukraine; zottherussiantrolls
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To: Gen.Blather
This is why Hitler declared war after Pearl Harbor.

Actually the German military advised against it, but Hitler decided he had to show that the alliance with Japan meant something.

Ford trucks were produced in German plants from 1939-41 and were preferred by the Wehrmacht for their reliability, even over German companies' production.

21 posted on 05/07/2022 11:32:06 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

There is no such requirement and it’s exactly the kind of thing you don’t overly publicize.


22 posted on 05/07/2022 11:33:09 AM PDT by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant)
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To: pierrem15

Hitlers American Business Partners...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug3iOJEOpac&t=3s


23 posted on 05/07/2022 11:33:54 AM PDT by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud. Sorry.)
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To: JoSixChip

The problem is, declaring war on another nuclear power isn’t a good idea.🙄


24 posted on 05/07/2022 11:34:52 AM PDT by BiteYourSelf ( Earth first we'll strip mine the other planets later.)
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To: pierrem15
Russia also received funding from those programs and they were publicly discussed at the time.

Your source for this neo-liberal propaganda?

25 posted on 05/07/2022 11:36:51 AM PDT by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aidera )
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To: JoSixChip
Under international law, a state of war can exist whether or not Congress acts, whether by the the US being attacked or by US attacking.

In the current war in Ukraine, the US is a cobelligerent, not a belligerent.

A Congressional declaration activates the treason clause, so that opposition to the war past a certain point or trading with the enemy becomes treason.

No one ever considered this to be a legal restriction on the President's use of the armed forces before Vietnam, but Presidents normally had to obtain Congressional action simply because US forces were too small for any substantial engagement. But they were freely used in many smaller engagements like Haiti, gunboats in China, Central America, etc., without Congressional authorization.

26 posted on 05/07/2022 11:41:41 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: pierrem15
the US is a cobelligerent, not a belligerent

Providing targeting intelligence, supplying the weapons and training to act on that intelligence is a belligerent act. And international law means nothing. We are a constitutional republic, not a globalist nation. At least not yet.
27 posted on 05/07/2022 11:47:07 AM PDT by JoSixChip (2020: The year of unreported truths; 2021: My main take away from this year? Trust no one.)
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To: mac_truck
The US funded former bio-labs and scientists all over the former Soviet Union to prevent any outbreaks of pathogens and to prevent the scientists there from hiring themselves out to others for bio-weapons research.

We even bought a large quantity of plutonium from Russia for the same reason and helped them to make sure their nukes were secure after the Soviet Union collapsed.

A lot of this work was done through the International Science and Technology Center, funded mainly by the EU, US and Japan.

You can view their annual reports here: https://www.istc.int/view-reports

28 posted on 05/07/2022 12:02:14 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: JoSixChip
Your certainty about your interpretation of the Constitution is not backed by either law or tradition.

So whatever Constitution you're talking about is not ours.

29 posted on 05/07/2022 12:04:09 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Russia has top down surveillance on Ukraine for decades and shouldn’t whine. Even knowing where every single piece of Ukie hardware is at all times, they failed to gain territory everywhere that is majority Ukrainian.

This is simply making the fight closer to a fair duel with equal technology. Instead of a superpower with spy satellites beating down on a blind neighbor.


30 posted on 05/07/2022 12:05:06 PM PDT by varyouga
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To: pierrem15

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution indicates that Congress has the power to declare war. On the other hand, Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution identifies the President as the “Commander-in-Chief” of all U.S. military forces. Traditionally, this has been interpreted to mean that only the Congress can declare war, and that once that is done, the President will be responsible for leading those military activities.

This distinction has also been interpreted to mean that the President can take steps to act defensively of the national interests, but cannot take preemptive military action. In other words, under the U.S. Constitution, the President is only authorized to repel invasions and sudden
attacks without a formal Congressional declaration of war. Any undeclared offensive military actions are not executive branch powers.


31 posted on 05/07/2022 12:11:20 PM PDT by JoSixChip (2020: The year of unreported truths; 2021: My main take away from this year? Trust no one.)
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To: JoSixChip
Providing targeting intelligence, supplying the weapons and training to act on that intelligence is a belligerent act.

No it isn't. Only a direct attack by our forces would be a belligerent act. As I said, we are only co-belligerents. Which also means any purported Constitutional restrictions do not apply.

You can make the argument that doing so is risky, might provoke the Russians to escalate, etc., which are rational if not (as I believe) valid arguments. But you can't invent new law out of whole cloth to get your preferred policy choices. That's what the Left does.

32 posted on 05/07/2022 12:18:33 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: pierrem15
Only a direct attack by our forces would be a belligerent act.

Says who? You may be a legend in your own mind, but I think you are full of crap.
33 posted on 05/07/2022 12:22:14 PM PDT by JoSixChip (2020: The year of unreported truths; 2021: My main take away from this year? Trust no one.)
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To: pierrem15

That twaddle you mention is in the constitution. Only Congress has the power to declare war.


34 posted on 05/07/2022 12:23:53 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: JoSixChip
Any undeclared offensive military actions are not executive branch powers.

As I said, this is a novel interpretation that arose during the Vietnam War. It would mean an enemy could line up forces along a US border and unless Congress acts the President would not be legally authorized to act until we were actually attacked, which is nonsense on stilts.

I can't think of any American President accepting this line of reasoning in over two centuries.

The Founders thought the power of the purse would constrain any large-scale Presidential adventurism, as it largely did until after WWII. What they were primarily concerned about was Presidential abuse of indictments for treason, for which there was plenty of evidence in English history. The declaration clause is clearly tied to limiting the power of the Federal government to make accusations of treason.

What Congress can't do is fund a large military and then try to exercise command authority over the military by controlling the sharing of intelligence or other dispositions of the military forces under the President's command. If it doesn't like what the President is doing, Congress can always cut the budget or impeach the President.

The Founders were wise enough to know that if Congress voted $700 billion for defense because of the magnitude of perceived threats, the last thing anyone would want is that bunch of corrupt gasbags interfering with the use of the military forces they paid for.

35 posted on 05/07/2022 12:37:27 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: pierrem15

“Under international law, a state of war can exist whether or not Congress acts,“

The US Constitution trumps any so called “international law.”


36 posted on 05/07/2022 12:39:01 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: pierrem15
The US funded former bio-labs and scientists all over the former Soviet Union to prevent any outbreaks of pathogens and to prevent the scientists there from hiring themselves out to others for bio-weapons research.

Cool story bro...but there have been multiple deadly outbreaks near these US funded "research" facilities in recent years, and it doesn't take three decades years to clean up old Soviet laboratories. Also, the arch neo-liberal Victoria Nuland spilled the beans about these labs recently while testifying before the Senate Intelligence committee, and the Russians have shared incriminating documents they gained access to in Ukraine...so spare us the hasbara.

37 posted on 05/07/2022 12:41:46 PM PDT by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aidera )
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To: DesertRhino
So sue. I'm sure the Federal Courts will listen avidly to a bunch of slack-jawed, America-hating paleo-cons presenting this argument.

Like the Left, you guys just twist the Constitution to mean whatever you want to get your preferred policy choices.

38 posted on 05/07/2022 12:43:19 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: mac_truck
You people are as brain dead as the Left. It is, in fact, just about impossible to clean up some these sites because they leaked pathogens for decades. The best that can be done is dismantle the labs and close off the areas around them like Chernobyl. And even if the labs are closed, the scientists still have their knowledge, so it's probably a good idea to give them a paycheck lest they hire themselves out to Iran, North Korea or others.

If you believe anything the Russians are saying about Ukraine, you're a genuine imbecile.

39 posted on 05/07/2022 12:50:30 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: pierrem15

40 posted on 05/07/2022 1:29:48 PM PDT by mylife (It looks just like a telefunken U47... (===)
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