Congress Yawns Over Warmaking Power

[n2doc]

By Kevin Drum
Wed May. 11, 2011 11:55 AM PDT

Under the War Powers Act, the president can commit troops to a military operation for 60 days before getting congressional approval. Next week, that 60 days is up for the war in Libya. So what happens then?

Doug Mataconis rounds up some reporting on this, and the answer is.....nothing. Apparently no one in Congress really cares, and President Obama, like every president before him, doesn't recognize the WPA as a legitimate check on his commander-in-chief powers anyway.

Whatever else you can say about Bush's wars, he did get Congress's approval for them. Obama isn't even bothering with that much. Still, it's hard to come down on him too hard over this. It's up to Congress to defend its authority in the warmaking arena, and they're tacitly agreeing that Obama's actions have been just peachy. If both branches agree on this, then I guess that's that. The president can deploy troops any time and in any way he wants. I just hope congressional Democrats don't start whining about this sometime in the future when a Republican president does the same thing.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/05/congress-yawns-over-warmaking-power

[pnwmom]

1. Obama's not doing this in defiance of Congress, he's doing it with their tacit approval.

Apparently, they don't want the responsibility.

[Riftaxe]

5. Ahh, did not read the exception about

tacit collusion in the law,
I go back and re-read it :)

[Arctic Dave]

2. Well I guess the War Monger" label some people have given Obama is true.

Who would of thought, power does corrupt.

[Octafish]

3. The Founders thought the Power to make War so important, they left it to The People.

...Which is what Congress is supposed to freaking do -- not the commander-in-chief.

[Fumesucker]

4. Well, yeah, but the FF didn't have the Military Industrial Congressional Complex to feed.

The MICC is a *very* hungry beast and has literally millions of tentacles practically everywhere.

[Riftaxe]

6. Is unfortunately one of the greater employers

in this country...Perhaps feeding the MICC is just a jobs program?

[Fumesucker]

7. Smedley Butler would disagree that it's just a jobs program..

And his experience was well before Eisenhower and the modern MIC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

[Riftaxe]

9. Was referring to the legions of contractors,

but +1 for history :)

[Fumesucker]

10. I wasn't saying it's not a jobs program..

But it's far more than just that, jobs are but a secondary or even tertiary effect.

[krabigirl]

8. pretty damn sad.