Re: For Mike: vade et caca in pilleum et ipse traheatur super aures tuo

WP doing comedy write ups now?  


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/death-of-the-war-powers-act/2011/05/17/AF3Jh35G_story.html



Death of the War Powers Act?
By  Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway, Published: May 17 
This week, the War Powers Act confronts its moment of truth. Friday  will mark 
the 60th day since President Obama told Congress of his Libyan  campaign. 
According to the act, that declaration started a 60-day  clock: If Obama fails 
to obtain congressional support for his decision  within this time limit, he has 
only one option — end American  involvement within the following 30 days.
Obama has not only failed but he hasn’t even tried — leaving it to  Sen. Richard 
Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations  Committee, to call for a 
“specific resolution that would give [the president] authority.”  Neither the 
president nor the Democratic congressional leadership has  shown any interest. 
They have been sleep-walking their way to Day 60.
Obama’s  politics of silence contrast sharply with clear and consistent legal  
pronouncements of the executive branch. Richard Nixon vetoed the act in  1973, 
precisely because it imposed restraints on presidential warmaking.  But 
two-thirds of both houses of Congress overrode his veto, and the  presidency 
soon fell into line. Jimmy Carter’s Justice Department  expressly affirmed the 
constitutionality of the 60-day clock in 1980 —  and its verdict has not been 
challenged by executive-branch lawyers. 

Obama has continued this tradition. His March 21 letter to Congress telling of 
the Libyan campaign stated that it was “consistent with the War Powers 
Resolution.” And his Justice Department issued an opinion that acknowledged the 
60-day rule without questioning its constitutionality.
Why,  then, hasn’t the president been pressing Congress to approve the war  
before the looming deadline? Because it’s easier to paper over the  problem with 
new legal fictions pretending that the time limit doesn’t  apply to this 
instance. By Friday, the administration’s legal team is likely to announce that 
the clock stopped ticking on April 1 — the date when NATO “took  the lead” in 
the bombing campaign. Since NATO is running the show, the  argument will go,  
the War Powers Act no longer applies, and the  president doesn’t have to go back 
to Congress after all. 

But  American planes and drones continued their bombing long after the April  
turnover — and the drones are still flying over Libya. Since the cost of  the 
mission is at three-quarters of a billion dollars and climbing, it is sheer 
fiction to suggest that we are no longer a vital player in NATO’s “Operation 
Unified Protector.” 

This  is especially so when an active-duty American officer remains at the  top 
of NATO’s chain of command. As supreme allied commander, Adm. James  Stavridis 
“leads all NATO military operations.”  While a Canadian air force general, 
Charles Bouchard, is in charge of  the Libyan campaign, the buck doesn’t stop 
with him but with Stavridis,  who also reports to the Pentagon as head of the 
U.S. European command.  Even if American drones discontinue their operations 
before the  deadline, an American admiral will still be in a position to call 
the  shots. 

This is no accident. NATO has been a key vehicle for  American military 
interests since the 1950s. It would create a terrible  precedent to pretend 
otherwise. Once Obama crosses the Rubicon, future  presidents will simply cite 
Libya when they unilaterally commit America  to far more ambitious NATO 
campaigns. 

Make no mistake: Obama is  breaking new ground, moving decisively beyond his 
predecessors. George  W. Bush gained congressional approval for his wars in 
Afghanistan and  Iraq. Bill Clinton acted unilaterally when he committed 
American forces  to NATO’s bombing campaign in Kosovo, but he persuaded Congress 
to  approve special funding for his initiative within 60 days. And the  entire 
operation ended on its 78th day. 

In contrast, Congress has  not granted special funds for Libya since the bombing 
began, and the  campaign is likely to continue beyond the 30-day limit set for  
termination of all operations. 

Since the House of Representatives  is out of session this week, Congress can’t 
approve the operation  before the Friday deadline. But under the expedited 
procedures specified  by the act, speedy congressional approval is feasible next 
week.
If  nothing happens, history will say that the War Powers Act was condemned  to 
a quiet death by a president who had solemnly pledged, on the  campaign trail, 
to put an end to indiscriminate warmaking. 

Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway are professors of law and political science at 
Yale.
-- 
dadl-ot mailing list
http://mail.thehood.us/mailman/listinfo/dadl-ot_thehood.us
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.music.dadl.ot