{"id":22072,"date":"2013-09-10T13:25:31","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T18:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=22072"},"modified":"2013-09-10T13:30:03","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T18:30:03","slug":"the-authorization-for-the-use-of-military-force-is-tarp-with-tomahawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/09\/10\/the-authorization-for-the-use-of-military-force-is-tarp-with-tomahawks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Authorization for the Use of Military Force is “TARP with Tomahawks”"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Reason<\/em>, Gene Healy<\/a> explains why the authorization should not be granted to President Obama by congress:<\/p>\n

Tonight, President Obama, who rose to the presidency on the strength of stirring speeches, goes back to the well with a prime-time address urging Congress to authorize an attack on Syria.<\/p>\n

He admits it\u2019ll be \u201ca heavy lift.\u201d And how: per the Washington Post<\/em>\u2019s latest whip count in the House, even if all 170 undecideds break their way, the administration won\u2019t be within shouting distance of a majority.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s good, because the Authorization for the Use of Military Force that\u2019s on the table deserves to fail. It\u2019s TARP with Tomahawks.<\/p>\n

The provisions purporting to restrict the president to a brief, \u201climited and tailored\u201d war are too weak to stick.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, they\u2019re undermined by the AUMF\u2019s gratuitous overstatement of presidential power: \u201cThe President has authority under the Constitution to use force in order to defend the national security interests of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrong. The Constitution gives him the power to \u201crepel sudden attacks\u201d against the U.S., not launch them whenever he imagines they\u2019ll promote our \u201cnational security interests.\u201d That language practically invites Obama to ignore the limits and wage a wider war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update<\/b>: In another post<\/a> at Reason<\/em> the current polling certainly encourages congress not to cave to the President’s wishes.<\/p>\n

As the country debates launching airstrikes on Syria, President Barack Obama\u2019s standing on foreign policy has taken such a hit that the latest Reason<\/em>-Rupe poll finds 64 percent of Americans, including 68 percent of independents and 41 percent of Democrats, believe President Obama\u2019s handling of foreign policy is worse than, or the same as, former President George W. Bush\u2019s handling of foreign policy.<\/p>\n

President Obama famously said he opposes \u201cdumb wars.\u201d Nearly three-quarters of Americans, 74 percent, say it would be \u201cunwise\u201d for the United States to launch airstrikes on Syria without the support of the United Nations or Great Britain. Just 17 percent say U.S. strikes on Syria would be wise.<\/p>\n

When it comes to launching U.S. military action across the globe, 47 percent of Americans say the \u201cpolitical establishment in Washington D.C.\u201d is more likely to favor military action than they are. A majority of independents, 57 percent, say D.C. insiders are more likely to favor war than they are. In contrast, just 17 percent of Americans say the Beltway establishment is less likely to favor military action than they are, and 30 percent say the establishment favors war about the same amount as the public.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Reason, Gene Healy explains why the authorization should not be granted to President Obama by congress: Tonight, President Obama, who rose to the presidency on the strength of stirring speeches, goes back to the well with a prime-time address urging Congress to authorize an attack on Syria. He admits it\u2019ll be \u201ca heavy lift.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,370,5,13],"tags":[158,698,715,694],"class_list":["post-22072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-middle-east","category-military","category-usa","tag-barackobama","tag-congress","tag-constitution","tag-syria"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-5K0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22072"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22075,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22072\/revisions\/22075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}