IPFS
Ron Paul: Stop Obama's Unconstitutional Power Grab!
Written by Powell Gammill Subject: Obama Administration
These are truly troubling days for liberty in the United States.
Last
week the 60 day deadline for the president to gain congressional
approval for our military engagement in Libya under the War
Powers Resolution came and went. The media scarcely noticed. The
bombings continued. We had a hearing on Capitol Hill on the subject,
but the administration refuses to bother with the legality of its new
war. It is unclear if Mr. Obama will ever obtain congressional
consent, and astonishingly it is being argued that he doesn't need it.
Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution begs to differ. It
clearly states that the power to declare war rests within the
legislative branch - the branch closest to the people. The founders
were a war-weary people, and the requirement that it would take an act
of Congress to go to war was intentional. They believed war was not to
be entered into lightly, so they resisted granting such decision making
authority to one person. They objected to absolute warmaking power
granted to Kings. It would be incredibly naïve to think a dictator
could not or would not wrest power in this country.
Our
Presidents can now, on their own: order assassinations, including
American citizens; operate secret military tribunals; engage in
torture; enforce indefinite imprisonment without due process; order
searches and seizures without proper warrants, gutting the 4th
Amendment; ignore the 60 day rule for reporting to the Congress the
nature of any military operations as required by the War Power
Resolution; continue the Patriot Act abuses without oversight; wage war
at will; and treat all Americans as suspected terrorists at airports
with TSA groping and nude x-rays.
Americans who are not alarmed
by all of this are either not paying close attention, or are too
trusting of current government officials to be concerned. Those in
power right now might be trustworthy, upstanding people. But what of
the leaders of the future? They will inherit all the additional powers
we cede to the current position holders. Can we trust that they will
not take advantage? Today's best intentions create loopholes and
opportunities for tomorrow's tyrants.
Perhaps the most
troubling power grab of late is the mission creep associated with the
9/11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Initiated as
targeted strikes against the perpetrators of 9/11, a decade later we
are still at war. With whom? Last week Congress passed a Defense
Authorization bill with some very disturbing language that explicitly
extends the president's war powers to just about anybody. Section 1034
of that bill states that we are at war with the Taliban, al Qaeda, and
associated forces. Who are the associated forces? It also includes
anyone who has supported hostilities in aid of an organization that
substantially supports these associated forces. This authorization is
not limited by geography, and it has no sunset provision. It doesn't
matter if these associated forces are American citizens. Your
constitutional rights no longer apply when the United States is "at
war" with you. Would it be so hard for someone in the government to
target a political enemy and connect them to al Qaeda, however
tenuously, and have them declared an associated force?
My
colleague Congressman Justin Amash spearheaded an effort to have this
troubling language removed, but unfortunately it failed by a vote of
234 to 187. It is unfortunate indeed, that so many in Congress accept
unlimited warmaking authority in the hands of the executive branch.