BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: 461

This week’s column has been written as a response to President Trump’s speech from last Wednesday.  In it he said that Iran’s military forces and nuclear weapons capabilities have been decimated by our military forces.  Now let me be clear: I fully agree that Iran’s government has been an active threat to our country, Israel and other countries for the past decades, and strongly agree that cutting back its military and nuclear weapons capabilities is certainly a good thing.  However, the process we go through to pursue such results is critically important.  In other words, be careful what you wish for!

What do I mean by that?  Our President has generated this military action only on his own (argued) authority.  And he actually publicly called what we were doing “a war,” and then said: “Oops, they tell me I can’t say that.”  But Congress has not authorized a war in any way.  And, since only Congress can issue a Declaration of War under our Constitution, this sets (or reinforces) a dangerous precedent.  Consider the following (silly) example: What if some future American President decided that the French Government had slandered our country to such an extent that it was seriously harming our economy.  So, in response, our President authorized the bombing of Paris – using President Trump’s actions with Iran as a precedent.  Under those circumstances, how could we deny its validity?

So please look at it this way: In so many ways our Founders were brilliant in establishing our Constitution.  First, they established the all-important Separation of Powers, so that one branch of our government could not control our nation’s actions by itself.  Truly important!  But, of equal importance from a practical standpoint, if/when Congress were to join with a President on taking any such actions, the entire country would tend to be much more unified in their pursuit, and the rest of the world would take note and adjust accordingly.  Clearly those are important results that are missing now with our involvement in Iran (just as they were missing with our involvements in Vietnam).  So let us be and continue to be a Nation of Laws, so that we pursue reasonable goals in a much more lawful and inclusive fashion.  We – and the world – will be much better off if we do!  What do you think?

(Question for the week from the comic strip “B.C.”: What is the definition of the word “Lemonade?”  Answer: An Assistant Used-Car Salesman.)