Hmmmmmmmmmm! Perhaps some of the shifts in Pauls positions are due to the fact that he is aiming at a moving target. Obama has already taken us into a war with ISIS without an act of Congress. If Paul proposes a declaration of war, he will be asking Congress to do something it has not done since World War II, despite all the presidential wars since then. The typical AUMF is full of ifs and buts and leaves it to the president to decide and declare whether we are at war, thereby giving tacit congressional approval to presidential usurpation. It was a point Senator Pauls father, former Texas congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul, made when he was opposing the Iraq War. As he recalled in his book, Revolution: A Manifesto, In 2002, as war with Iraq loomed, I proposed that Congress officially declare war against Iraq, making it clear that I intended to oppose my own measure. The point was to underscore our constitutional responsibility to declare war before commencing major military operations, rather than leaving the decision to the President or passing resolutions that delegate to the president the decision making power over war. It seems unlikely that Rand Paul would eventually vote against his own resolution, but who knows what he or his Senate colleagues might do after all the anticipated costs and consequences of our latest Middle East adventure have had a full airing and debate? In a number of speeches he has made since his 2010 election to the Senate, the younger Paul has indicated he is not as principally opposed to military interventions as his father. It might be that with his presidential campaign in mind he is trying, as many believe, to attract the support of more hawkish Republican primary voters, who may be attracted to his limited-government views on domestic policies, but still believe our nation should be policing the world with a more aggressive foreign policy. But his proposal will at least have the virtue of putting the decision of war and peace where the Constitution has placed it, with the Congress of the United States.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 01:35:37 +0000