[Peace-discuss] Will Walker Ask Congress Before Bombing Iran?

[Robert Naiman]

What you say is not true, unless you take the David Swanson line that all
war is illegal. But this is not how most people who care about engaging
Washington understand things.

The 2011 Libya war was unconstitutional. I'm the only person you know among
Democrats who did anything about it at the time. We helped Kucinich make a
fuss about this in the House, as a result of which Obama was rebuked by the
House for launching the war without Congressional authorization.

In 2013, President Obama threatened to bomb Syria without Congressional
authorization. We blocked him; I led the charge among Democrats.

Now President Obama is bombing Iraq and Syria, claiming authorization under
the 2001 post 9/11 "Al Qaeda and allied forces" AUMF. Many people have
protested this, including me, repeatedly. But this is not at all the same
as bombing Iran, because 1) there is no plausible story that the 2001 AUMF
applies to bombing Iran and 2) Congress has, unfortunately, ratified
through inaction Obama's invocation of the 2001 AUMF as authorization for
bombing Iraq and Syria.









Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 2:22 PM, C. G. Estabrook <carl at newsfromneptune.com>
wrote:

> Come on, Bob. Obama has carried on illegal war from his first day in
> office (as Bush and Clinton did before him).
>
> What Walker is saying is not much different from what Candidate Obama said
> a decade ago: "…the United States should not rule out military strikes to
> destroy nuclear production sites in Iran, Obama said … ‘having a radical
> Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse [than] us
> launching some missile strikes into Iran…’” (Chicago Tribune, 25 Sept.
> 2004).
>
> Meanwhile, Obama now continues to kill thousands (including US citizens
> and hundreds of children) with his regularly scheduled drone strikes (see
> NYT on his “Terror Tuesdays”) every week.
>
> Why not organize against a real mass murderer in theWhite House rather
> than a hapless Republican wannabe?
>
> Your work supports the killer by distraction. Do you mean it to?
>
> —CGE
>
> On Jul 21, 2015, at 1:58 PM, Robert Naiman <noreply at list.moveon.org>
> wrote:
>
> Dear C. G. Estabrook,
>
> Many Republican opponents of the Iran nuclear deal claim that they have
> some alternative to the deal besides war.
>
> They might want to check in with Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, widely
> considered to be one of the "serious" Republican candidates for President.
> As Greg Sargent pointed out in the *Washington Post*, not only has Walker
> promised to undo the Iran deal on his first day in office; he has now said
> that he might need to take military action on his first day in office.
>
> Walker hasn't explained how, under the U.S. Constitution, he can bomb Iran
> without Congressional authorization.
>
> I have a piece up about this at *Huffington Post*. My hope is that if
> many people see this piece, some enterprising reporter will ask Scott
> Walker whether he thinks he would need Congressional authorization to bomb
> Iran.
>
> Y*ou can read and share my piece here:*
>
> *Will President Scott Walker Ask Congress for Authorization Before He
> Bombs Iran?*
>
> *http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/will-president-scott-walk_b_7836634.html*
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/will-president-scott-walk_b_7836634.html>
>
> P.S. if you haven't signed our joint petition with Win Without War to urge
> Democrats to speak up for the deal, you can do that here:
>
> *http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/stopwarwithiran*
> <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/stopwarwithiran>
>
> Thanks for all you do to defend diplomacy and prevent war,
>
> Robert Naiman
> Just Foreign Policy
>
> ------------------------------
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