Dems Phony War Powers Resolution
US 20th and 21st century history shows Dems more hellbent for war than Republicans.
In 1916, Dem Woodrow Wilson was reelected on a pledge of: “He Kept Us Out of War.”
Straightaway, he began planning US involvement in Europe’s war — today called WW I.
Propaganda his regime sponsored transformed pacifist Americans into raging German haters. Wilson got the war he wanted.
The same goes for Dem Franklin Roosevelt. From 1933 to late 1941, he spurned Japanese peace overtures that would have protected US interests in the Pacific.
By executive order, he froze Japanese assets. He waged economic war on the country, goading its ruling authorities to retaliate.
In late November 1941, US war secretary Henry Stimson said war depended only on how to maneuver Japan to attack with the lowest number of US casualties.
Roosevelt encouraged an attack on Pearl Harbor by stationing the Pacific Fleet there — against the advice of its commander and chief of naval operations.
After the Japanese code was broken, intercepted cables confirmed an attack was coming.
The US tracked its fleet from the Kurile Islands to its North Pacific refueling point en route to Pearl Harbor for the December 7 attack.
FDR got the war he wanted, in Europe as well after Hitler declared war on the US.
Aggression against North Korea was Dem Harry Truman’s war. Dem Lyndon Johnson was president when the August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin false flag occurred. A decade of US Southeast Asia war followed.
In 1980, Dem Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski orchestrated the devastating Iran/Iraq war, lasting until August 1988, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides.
The US wanted both countries to smash each other, wanting Iran smashed most by aiding Saddam Hussein.
Republicans aren’t peaceniks. Under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, US Central American proxy wars raged, hundreds of thousands killed, tortured and otherwise abused, millions driven into exile.
A 1986 International Tribunal on Genocide in Central America said “acts of genocide and ethnocide (were) committed against indigenous groups.”
“(S)tate sponsored and rebel force sponsored genocide against indigenous peoples (occured) throughout the course of the” period, including massacres, torture, forced military service, land seizures, arbitrary arrests and imprisonments, population relocations, and attacks amounting to genocide under the UN Convention.”
Republican GHW Bush bears responsibility for the 1991 Gulf War and initiation of genocidal sanctions of the Iraqi people — in place from 1990 until 2003, taking millions of lives.
The Dem Clinton co-presidency was complicit in the early 1990s Rwanda massacres, enforcing genocidal sanctions on Iraq, terror-bombing the country intermittently, along with raping Yugoslavia.
Republicans Bush/Cheney launched post-9/11 wars, unjustifiably justified by the 9/11 mother of all false flags.
Dem Obama continued Afghan, Iraq, and Yemen wars he inherited, new ones waged on Libya and Syria.
All of the above was continued by Trump directly and indirectly, along with war by other means on Iran, Venezuela, and other countries.
In early January, House members adopted a nonbinding war powers resolution by a 224 – 194 majority to prevent US war on Iran without congressional authorization — members voting largely along party lines.
The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires a congressional declaration of war, or a national emergency created by an attack on the US, its territories, possessions, or armed forces, for the executive to engage in foreign hostilities.
It requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing forces to military action abroad.
It prohibits them from remaining over 60 days, a further 30-day withdrawal period allowed.
The War Powers Resolution ignores UN Charter international law — stating that Security Council members alone may authorize war by one nation on others, permitted only in self-defense if attacked, never preemptively, how Republicans and Dems waged all US wars throughout the post-WW II era.
On Wednesday, Senate members advanced a war powers resolution by a 51 – 45 majority, 8 Republicans joining with most Dems, a final vote to follow Thursday.
If adopted, reconciliation between House and Senate measures will take place later this month.
Certain to be vetoed by Trump, a two-thirds super-majority in both houses are needed to override it, what’s highly unlikely.
The resolution is symbolic and politicized. Both right wings of the one-party state are hellbent for endless wars. History proves it.
Ahead of Wednesday’s Senate vote, Trump tweeted:
“It is very important for our Country’s SECURITY that the United States Senate not vote for the Iran War Powers Resolution (sic). This is not the time to show weakness (sic).”
“If my hands were tied, Iran would have a field day (sic). Sends a very bad signal (sic).”
“The (Dems) are only doing this as an attempt to embarrass the Republican Party (sic). Don’t let it happen!”
International, constitutional, and US statute law never stood in the way of its preemptive wars on nonbelligerent nations threatening no one.
The congressional war powers resolution is a meaningless measure, a politicized one.
Nonbelligerent Iran threatens no one. The US threatens humanity.
Trump regime war on the Islamic Republic is highly unlikely.
Pentagon commanders want no part of war on a nation able to hit back hard against its regional facilities and Middle East allies.
In an election year, another war that results in large numbers of US casualties would likely make Trump a one-term president.
That reason alone makes it highly unlikely.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Stephen Lendman, Global Research, 2020
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