The Chris Moeller Archives

Bipartisanship at work

The Trump-irrationality caucus inside the Democratic party now takes to MSNBC to nurse its wounds and rebuild its credibility after its three-year Russian conspiracy misadventure comes to an end-- hopefully, for progressives. The Special Council did not find the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, had conspired or coordinated with the Russian government, and with that, I point out that I don't get enough credit for always being right. As focuses shift, two of our shining-light, first-term Congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) and Ilhan Omar (MN) have signed on to a bipartisan letter to the president praising him for ending the U.S. troop involvement in Syria.

Thirteen senators and congresspersons in all, led by Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Ro Khanna, signed the letter, which also points out to its readers that Congress never approved the introduction of U.S. military forces into the conflict to begin with. In violation of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973, President Obama made the decision to engage the U.S. military starting in 2015. The group of lawmakers also wrote that they hoped the ordered withdrawal that's under way would be a model in Afghanistan as well.

This is the type of legislative action that gets you labeled unpatriotic by the military industrial state and its stenographers in the traditional media. President Trump's own party chastised him when he made the surprise withdrawal announcement in December. The Republican-led Senate voted to denounce his plans to withdraw back in February. Sponsored by the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the resolution passed 70 votes to 26. Trump's Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned his office over the plan.

Nearly every president has violated the War Powers Act that passed near the end of the Vietnam War, the piece of legislation designed to curtail executive authority and put it back with the branch of government assigned to it in the Constitution. Reagan did this in El Salvador and Lebanon, Clinton in Kosovo, and Obama in Libya and Yemen and Syria. There is stronger bipartisan support for Trump to end the U.S. involvement continuing in Yemen. It was galvanized publicly by the Saudi Arabian murder of a U.S. journalist.

What's peculiar is how few signatures Paul and Khanna managed to gather from Khanna's party. One year ago, Trump was launching air strikes against the Assad government in Syria, and while most establishment Democrats were following the script of the military state and applauding the strikes, their statements were tempered. House leader Pelosi wanted a "comprehensive Syria strategy." Senator Schumer said that Trump "has to be careful about not getting us into a greater and more involved war in Syria." Senator Warren reminded the president that "the Constitution gives Congress the power to authorize military action." Senator Booker said he was "deeply concerned that President Trump continues to conduct military operations without any comprehensive strategy or the necessary congressional authorization." Hillary Clinton's 2016 running mate, Senator Kaine of Virginia, said upon the airstrikes that Trump's decision to launch them "against Syria without Congress's approval is illegal."

All five of these lawmakers should be ecstatic that U.S. involvement is ending there, if not still concerned that the president never bothered to get their approval in the first place, but I am unaware of any comments from them in confirmation. None of them are signatures on the letter.

posted by CM @ 3:38 PM