Like President Obama, he proposes circumventing the Constitution. What will his anti-war endorser Senator Rand Paul say?
By Conor Friedersdorf
See web-only content:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/mitt-romney-says-he-could-wage-war-on-iran-without-congress-approval/258607/
On Face the Nation on Sunday, Mitt Romney said that if elected president he wouldn't have to get congressional permission for a military strike on Iran.
To quote him directly (emphasis added):
- I can assure you if I'm president, the Iranians will have no question
but that I will be willing to take military action if necessary to
prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world. I don't believe
at this stage, therefore, if I'm president that we need to have a war
powers approval or special authorization for military force. The
president has that capacity now. I understand that some in the Senate for
instance have written letters to the president indicating you should know
that a containment strategy is unacceptable. We cannot survive a course
of action which would include a nuclear Iran we must be willing to take
any and all actions.
- All those actions must be on the table.
- All those actions must be on the table.
Says Daniel Larison:
- The United States survived decades of containing Soviet power.
America outlasted what may have been the greatest security threat in our
history partly because of a policy of containment. Iran is far weaker
than any threat the USSR ever posed. If the U.S. could not survive a
nuclear-armed Iran, a President Romney would be powerless to change that.
On the other hand, back in the real world, if the U.S. has little to fear
from a nuclear-armed Iran and is more than capable of deterring any
threat from Iran, there is no reason to listen to anything Romney has to
say on this subject.
- Romney obviously does not believe war is a last resort, and he clearly doesn't believe that the Congress has anything to say about attacking Iran. According to Romney, it is something that the president could do tomorrow if he believed it necessary. The Constitution is completely irrelevant to Romney, and so is the consent of the American people expressed through its representatives. No one should have any illusions about how Romney would conduct foreign policy if he is elected.
- Romney obviously does not believe war is a last resort, and he clearly doesn't believe that the Congress has anything to say about attacking Iran. According to Romney, it is something that the president could do tomorrow if he believed it necessary. The Constitution is completely irrelevant to Romney, and so is the consent of the American people expressed through its representatives. No one should have any illusions about how Romney would conduct foreign policy if he is elected.
As Paul put it on the Senate floor:
- Our Founding Fathers were quite concerned about giving the power to
declare war to the Executive. They were quite concerned that the
Executive could become like a king. Many in this body cannot get boots on
ground fast enough in a variety of places, from Syria to Libya to Iran.
We don't just send boots to war. We send our young Americans to war. Our
young men and women, our soldiers, deserve thoughtful debate. Before
sending our young men and women into combat, we should have a mature and
thoughtful debate over the ramifications of and over the authorization of
war and over the motives of the war. James Madison wrote that the
Constitution supposes what history demonstrates. That the Executive is
the branch most interested in war and most prone to it. The Constitution,
therefore, with studied care vested that power in the
Legislature.
It's going to get worse.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/mitt-romney-says-he-could-wage-war-on-iran-without-congress-approval/258607/#.T9_hMVEqa4o.facebook --
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