You MUST get congressional permission! You MUST get permission from the international “community”! You MUST descend upon far distant lands with hordes of clerks, jerks, and Green Beans Coffee trailers! Oh, and you above all else mustn’t forget to drag along the taxpayers’ trough-fed (and career bureaucrats' stock portfolios padding) defense contractors! That’s all so 2002.
We are currently in the midst of a military operation that tests if Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay’s thesis (unrestrained air power is decisive) coupled with indigenous forces on the ground; trumps the racket of “nation building” missionary wars conducted by the American UniParty over the past quarter-century? But is President Trump’s strategy really all that new?
First, let’s deal with the idea promoted by my favorite Congressman, Thomas Massie, that all US Military actions MUST have prior approval from Congress. (The international “community” has zero standing in our sovereign affairs.) Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the US Constitution gives the Congress broad war powers. Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution gives the President broad war powers. Then is it up to Article III’s Supreme Court to decisively decide where those powers begin or end? No. There is no “supreme” overarching authority over the other two branches of our government granted in Article III. The Court issues opinions; but that’s exactly what they are: “opinions.” The US Supreme Court possesses no forces with which to compel compliance with any of its decisions.
As to the history of congressionally unauthorized military actions, don’t believe me; believe your “lying” eyes. A non-exhaustive list of US Military “gunboat diplomacy” (heavy on threat/punishment and light on occupation) actions resulting in favorable outcomes for the United States include the: Quasi War With France; Barbary Wars; Commodore Perry Opening Japan; China River Patrols; Fiji Punitive Expedition; Banana Wars; Pershing’s Mexican Punitive Expedition; Grenada; Panama; ISIS Caliphate Dismantling; Maduro Snatch, and now Decapitation of the Iranian Mullahs. Is Cuba Libre! next? Are nerves tense in Jalisco?
The bottom line? If President Trump is able to pull this off (as he did with ISIS in Trump 1.0 and Venezuela, recently); the predominant post-WWII “best practice” of begging permission, then involving oneself neck-deep on the ground for decades while flaccidly employing half-measures against your enemy may finally be vanquished by a return to a lean gunboat diplomacy-centered American foreign policy. Time will tell.
Next Week: OWB Holsters
Shane Morris is a retired soldier and teacher. Contact at: sigm11@yahoo.com (Subject: NtC)
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