Unconstitutional Wars From Truman Forward

As we celebrate Memorial Day 2018, it behooves us to ponder the basis for the wars in which our loved ones died, including the legality and the very constitutionality of those wars. This paper is a good step in that direction:

From President Truman’s initiation of war against North Korea in June 1950, presidents have exceeded constitutional and statutory authority in exercising the war power. Instead of coming to Congress for a declaration of war or statutory support, they sought “authority” from the U.N. Security Council or NATO allies. The precedent established by Truman was followed by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Through their initiatives, they violated the rule of law, the principle of self-government, and the system of checks and balances. The U.S. Constitution expressly rejected the British model that placed with the Executive exclusive authority over all of external affairs, including taking the country to a state of war. The Framers assigned that power solely to Congress.

You can read the rest @
https://css.cua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/fisher-unconstitutional-wars-from-truman-forward.pdf  [a very long read]

Note well - A new authorization for the use of military force is pending in Congress. We need to ask ourselves whether such an AUMF is in the interest of We the People, or whether it mainly benefits the rich and/or external parties such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. This is not a trivial concern, since our very lives may depend upon it.

Our military should be used first and foremost to defend our country. Any use to defend so-called allies should happen only with great restraint. This is so because instead of solving the world's problems, our cavalier use of military force actually has caused almost all of them.