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2012-03-08 Home Front: Culture Wars

Panetta: 'International Permission Trumps Congressional Permission For Military Actions

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Posted by DarthVader 2012-03-08 10:44|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 PJ Media's story on this.

Posted by DarthVader 2012-03-08 10:54|| 2012-03-08 10:54|| Front Page Top

#2 I listened to the recording. The only real problem is that Panetta has a poor command of the English language.

It helps to understand how US involved coalitions work.

1) The president tries to get other nations to join the coalition. Then the US military coordinates with these other militaries to figure out the mission objectives and logistics, assignments, ROEs and other details. No congressional involvement at this point.

2) While the president is doing this, he informally keeps in touch with the senate so they know what's going on and put in their two cents. However, they do not vote on it until after hostilities have commenced and the War Powers Act requires the president to report to them.

3) At that point, they may choose to vote in favor, vote against (unlikely), or do nothing.

4) However, while this is going on, the militaries are cooperating in all sorts of ways that congress is not involved in at all. The military does not want them involving themselves and trying to micromanage the conflict.

Importantly, while only the congress can declare war, because of the Geneva Conventions, congress will never again declare war, as such. This has been the case since the Korean conflict, a "police action", not a war.

The one exception will be if a major power declares war against the US first, as did the Japanese and the Germans in WWII. Then the US can "declare war back."

Posted by Anonymoose 2012-03-08 18:14|| 2012-03-08 18:14|| Front Page Top

#3 3) At that point, they may choose to vote in favor, vote against (unlikely), or do nothing.

Or they can cut all funding for any operation. They hold the purse strings by law. The Founding Fathers prior history as English subjects influenced their writing of the Constitution with the retention of that specific power.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-03-08 20:43|| 2012-03-08 20:43|| Front Page Top

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