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President Barack Obama said Wednesday he would work with Congress on new war powers to fight Islamic State militants and expressed cautious optimism about whether the international face-off over Iran's nuclear program will be resolved — two issues that could prove harder for the White House to maneuver with Republicans in charge on Capitol Hill. Obama spoke at a news conference the day after his party was thrashed by Republicans in midterm elections, leaving the GOP soon to be in charge of both the House and the Senate. When he approved U.S. airstrikes in late September against extremists who have...

He’s not the only one, but Tom Campbell may have the highest level of moral authority to rebuke Congress on this point. Now a law professor, Campbell filed a lawsuit to block Bill Clinton from ordering air strikes in Serbia in the late 1990s without an explicit Congressional authorization for war. Now Campbell tells Yahoo News’ Olivier Knox that the current Congress risks setting a precedent that will all but eliminate the legislature’s ability to control when America goes to war: “This is Congress running way from its responsibility,” the soft-spoken Campbell told Yahoo News in a telephone interview. “Is...

The United States has begun a bombing campaign in Syria, but don’t bet on Congress returning to Washington to vote on a new war authorization anytime soon. Shortly after airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria started, some lawmakers started pushing again for an authorization vote. But so far, leaders aren’t gearing up to bring their members back to town. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted Monday night it was “irresponsible and immoral” that congressional leaders had chosen to recess for nearly two months instead of debating and voting on war. And the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, Chris Van...

US President Barack Obama says he has the “legal authority” to order US airstrikes on Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) forces in Syria, according to sources present at a dinner with foreign policy experts at the White House on Monday. Obama “thinks he has the legal authority he needs” to expand action in Iraq and Syria under the War Powers Act, according to Jane Harman, the president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who told the Washington Post about the dinner. Another attendee of the dinner, former undersecretary of defense for policy Michèle Flournoy, told the paper Obama...

The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 16, 2014 Statement by the Press Secretary on the War Powers Resolution Report for Iraq Today, consistent with the War Powers Resolution, the President transmitted a report notifying the Congress that up to approximately 275 U.S. military personnel are deploying to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The personnel will provide assistance to the Department of State in connection with the temporary relocation of some staff from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to the U.S. Consulates General in Basra...

Presidential hopeful Ron Paul insists that the U.S. government shouldn’t go to war without a declaration of war. His son Rand has also taken this position, as have several libertarian-leaning Tea Party candidates. According to the U.S. Constitution, the congress is invested with the power to declare war. These constitutionalists say that obtaining one should be a requirement before military action is authorized. I’m not sure that this is resonating with those that are unfamiliar with what a declaration of war means. For most people, the declaration of war is a formality whereby the president makes sure that it is...

Senator Rand Paul is calling for a declaration of war against the Islamic State, a move that promises to shake up the debate over the military campaign in Iraq and Syria as President Obama prepares to ask Congress to grant him formal authority to use force. Mr. Paul, a likely presidential candidate who has emerged as one of the Republican Party’s most cautious voices on military intervention, offered a very circumscribed definition of war in his proposal, which he outlined in an interview on Saturday. He would, for instance, limit the duration of military action to one year and significantly...

The authorization for the use of military force against ISIS that the Obama administration sent Congress this week is not worthy of the name. Its language is far more about what the president won’t do against the terrorist army that controls much of Syria and Iraq—limits on ground troops and a sunset provision for the authorization after three years—than what he will do. Congress should reject it. If the threat of ISIS is as dire as the president says it is in the preamble of his resolution, if ISIS really does pose “a grave threat to the people and territorial...

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama asked Congress on Wednesday to authorize military force against Islamic State that would bar any large-scale invasion by U.S. ground troops and limit operations to three years. Republicans, who control Congress, put up swift resistance to the proposal. They say Obama's foreign policy is too passive and want stronger measures against the militants, also known as ISIL. With Obama's fellow Democrats wary of another Middle East war, it could be difficult for the White House to win enough support to pass the bill, even though six months have passed since the military campaign began....

*****November 16, 2009*****".....The [Washington] Times compiled an informal list of the new rules from interviews with U.S. forces. Among them: • No night or surprise searches. • Villagers have to be warned prior to searches. • ANA or ANP must accompany U.S. units on searches. • U.S. soldiers may not fire at the enemy unless the enemy is preparing to fire first. • U.S. forces cannot engage the enemy if civilians are present. • Only women can search women. • Troops can fire at an insurgent if they catch him placing an IED but not if insurgents are walking away...

The United States and its allies carried out 29 separate airstrikes targeting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq on Friday, according to the Combined Joint Task Force. The strikes occurred between Friday and Saturday morning, and targeted a range of Islamic State vehicles, buildings, and other positions, according to Reuters. Sixteen of the attacks occurred in seven different Iraqi cities. Vehicles, buildings, equipment and fighting positions were targeted, as well as Islamic State units, according to the task force. In Syria, 11 more airstrikes were conducted around the city of Kobani. Those strikes destroyed a tank and other fighting...

I posted this article from Israel Hayom at Warsclerotic, of which I am an editor. The article argues that to fight the Islamic State we need to change our rules of engagement. The parenthetical comment at the top of the Warsclerotic post is mine and is reproduced below. (Could the U.S. and her allies put effective boots on the ground, or have the boots and the nation become too multiculturally damaged to do what needs to be done? More than the rules of war needs to change. When the U.S. responded to the Russian supplied, trained and initially led North Korean invasion on June 25, 1950,...

The new U.S.-Afghanistan security agreement adds restrictions on already bureaucratic rules of engagement for American troops by making Afghan dwellings virtual safe havens for the enemy, combat veterans say. The rules of engagement place the burden on U.S. air and ground troops to confirm with certainty that a Taliban fighter is armed before they can fire — even if they are 100 percent sure the target is the enemy. In some cases, aerial gunships have been denied permission to fire even though they reported that targets on the move were armed. The proposed Bilateral Security Agreement announced Wednesday by Afghan

Listen to broadcast interview of retired Marine 1st Sgt John Bernard give his opinion after the Benghazi hearings and the non-response of the GOP and the explanation for the faulty reasoning behind COIN and the present rules of engagement.

Just yesterday I heard the story of retired Army Captain William Swenson and his late in coming award of the Medal of Honor, earned in a tense combat mission, in Afghanistan in 2009, judged by many, to be one of the most, if not the most intense ever in that region. Because the outline of the story were gripping, I hunted down a handful of write-ups on the Battle of Ganjgal, and in the process, not only uncovered details that have only sparsely been alluded to, but a rare clip of raw video of one segment of the event as...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - A Scandal Bigger Than Benghazi?Posted By Arnold Ahlert On August 12, 2013 @ 12:40 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 5 Comments In a story that has remained largely under the mainstream media radar, Congress announced late last month that it would finally investigate the Aug. 6, 2011 helicopter crash in Afghanistan that resulted in 38 deaths, including 22 members of SEAL Team 6, made famous three months earlier when they killed Osama Bin Laden. Grieving family members insist that soldiers in the elite unit were placed in unnecessary danger by the recklessness of the Obama administration, whose actions...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned on Monday that U.S. troops are “close to the breaking point,” after many deployments — and Congress risks worsening the situation if it doesn’t help the Pentagon with its budget. “Our people are strong and resilient after 12 years of war, but they are under stress — and so are the institutions that support them,” Hagel told the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the group’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky. “Last week at Fort Bragg’s Soldier and Family Assistance Center, I met a first sergeant who told me that in Afghanistan, he froze up and...

..."Instead of blaming Taliban infiltration or other causes, the draft of a new Army handbook says ignorance of local culture drove many of the insider attacks that killed 63 Americans and other allied forces this year alone." ... The handbook says troops should avoid “making derogatory comments about the Taliban, advocating women’s rights, any criticism of pedophilia, directing any criticism towards Afghans, mentioning homosexuality and homosexual conduct” or “anything related to Islam.” ... "Maybe, just maybe, if Allen suddenly approves the outrageous field manual, the probe against him will be dropped. Stranger things have happened in the last four years."

Barack Obama likes to answer questions – from John Stewart, from the gang on “The View,” from David Letterman, from a fawning media establishment. But the nation witnessed what happened when Mitt Romney asked him a few tough questions. He crumbled like an empty suit. I doubt very much if Obama will ever allow me to interview him – or even ask one tough question. After all, who am I? I’m only a guy running the first and largest independent news source on the Internet, with an audience of 8 million. I’m only a guy who before launching WND 15...

An American hero, Colonel Harry Tunnell IV, Commander of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, documented the truth about the war in Afghanistan. What Obama is really doing in Afghanistan is treasonous. Dated August 20, 2010, a letter was written to John McHugh, Secretary of the Army, signed by Colonel Harry Tunnell IV. In the letter, four significant factors about military operations in Afghanistan were revealed. 1. When US soldiers arrive in Afghanistan, they are told that they are fighting for the Afghan people: “Soldiers join the military today to protect the United States, yet they are told once in...