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Post by ed1066 on Jun 14, 2011 14:48:45 GMT -5
The Warmonger-in-Chief is at it again, this time bombing Yemen without congressional approval or oversight of any kind. This is what happens when no one ever says "no" to an out of control narcissist... Where the hell is the anti-war left? www.salon.com/news/yemen/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/06/14/yemen_illegal_warBoth The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post report today that the Obama administration is planning to exploit the disorder from the civil war in Yemen by dramatically escalating a CIA-led drone bombing campaign. In one sense, this is nothing new. Contrary to false denials, the U.S., under the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been bombing Yemen for the last two years, including one attack using cluster bombs that killed dozens of civilians. But what's new is that this will be a CIA drone attack program that is a massive escalation over prior bombing campaigns; as the Post put it: "The new tasking for the agency marks a major escalation of the clandestine American war in Yemen, as well as a substantial expansion of the CIA's drone war." Leaving aside the standard issue -- that continuously slaughtering civilians in the Muslim world is going to exacerbate every problem which ostensibly justifies the bombing, beginning with Terrorism -- Kevin Drum asks the obvious question: Exactly what theory of military action allows President Obama to do this without congressional approval? In Afghanistan and Nicaragua in the 80s, you could argue that we were merely funding allies, not fighting a war ourselves. In Grenada and Panama, you could argue that we were merely pursuing small-scale police actions. In Pakistan, you can argue that our operations are all part of the Afghanistan war. You might not like any of those arguments, but at least they're something. But what's the theory here? This is obviously not a short-term operation (it began well over a year ago). It's obviously not part of the Afghanistan war. You'd have to twist yourself into a pretzel to pretend that the post-9/11 AUMF applies here. (The fact that Congress is considering an extension of the 2001 AUMF in order to cover operations like this is a tacit admission that the old AUMF doesn't apply. (GG: the 2001 resolution authorized force against "those nations, organizations, or persons [the President] determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001," which is not remotely applicable to militants in Yemen)). Nor does the fact that Yemen's president has given it his blessing really mean anything from a war powers standpoint. In practice, the theory seems to be that unmanned drones are somehow not as real as actual manned fighter jets. After all, does anyone seriously believe that Obama could send sortie after sortie of F-22s over Yemen and not have anyone complain about it? I doubt it. |
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Post by ed1066 on Jun 14, 2011 14:53:41 GMT -5
He is wiping out Al Queada wheels right and left, go Obama. Ah, that's why he can do it; because the zombies won't question Dear Leader...maybe they'll give him another Peace Prize after more Yemeni civilians are dead? |
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deziloooooo
Senior Associate
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 16:22:04 GMT -5
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Post by deziloooooo on Jun 14, 2011 15:26:47 GMT -5
He is wiping out Al Queada wheels right and left, go Obama. Ah, that's why he can do it; because the zombies won't question Dear Leader...maybe they'll give him another Peace Prize after more Yemeni civilians are dead? ed I asked you twice now, this is the third, IF obama took out Irans Nuc's, just say he did, this was a real big thing with YOU,[others too but with YOU, it was a real Biggie }..I asked you if you would then change your ideas of him, your rhetoric, your dissing of all things Obama, and support him in any way, even for his reelection...yet you never seem to get to me with a answer, how about now..same scenario if played out? |
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Post by ed1066 on Jun 14, 2011 15:30:27 GMT -5
Ah, that's why he can do it; because the zombies won't question Dear Leader...maybe they'll give him another Peace Prize after more Yemeni civilians are dead? ed I asked you twice now, this is the third, IF obama took out Irans Nuc's, just say he did, this was a real big thing with YOU,[others too but with YOU, it was a real Biggie }..I asked you if you would then change your ideas of him, your rhetoric, your dissing of all things Obama, and support him in any way, even for his reelection...yet you never seem to get to me with a answer, how about now..same scenario if played out? Aren't you on another thread right now, castigating Henry for not staying on topic? And here you are, doing just exactly that on my thread...  |
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AGB
Familiar Member
Joined: Jun 9, 2011 14:27:49 GMT -5
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Post by AGB on Jun 14, 2011 19:25:19 GMT -5
Why wouldn't it be applicable to militants in Yemen?
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zipity
Well-Known Member
Joined: Dec 21, 2010 0:32:17 GMT -5
Posts: 1,101
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Post by zipity on Jun 14, 2011 19:45:24 GMT -5
Ah, that's why he can do it; because the zombies won't question Dear Leader...
No, he can do it because on September 14th, 2001 a joint session of Congress, the republican majority in the House and the republican majority in the Senate, consistent with section 8 (a) (1) of the War Powers Resolution, declared that the President of the United States (then Bush, now Obama) "is
authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those
nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized,
committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11,
2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any
future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such
nations, organizations or persons."
I suppose you thought that the authorization to go after terrorists expired with the republican's loss of the white house. Well think again.
You'd have to twist yourself into a pretzel to pretend that the post-9/11 AUMF applies here.
After twisting ourselves into a pretzel to try and pretend that AUMF applied to Iraq it's actually pretty easy to apply it here.
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