Dear Dirty America

Republican representative Walter B Jones (NC, 3rd district) introduced legislation that would threaten impeachment of President Obama, or any other president in the future who dares send the American military to war without congressional approval.

I covered the bill as soon as it was introduced:

The bill reads, “the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.”

Congressman Jones submitted the bill on March 7th. There has been almost no mainstream media coverage of this bill, yet it comes at an important time. Just a few days ago the Senate held a hearing with top brass bickering over who holds the power to authorize the use of the American military.

On Friday, congressman Jones talked to radio show host Alex Jones about the bill H Con Res 107, and what his intent was when drafting it. His initial concern about presidents launching invasions went back to Clinton’s unapproved bombing of Bosnia.

Jones joined a group of thirty-one House members in order to seek judicial action against Clinton’s Bosnian intervention, but the courts wouldn’t hear the case because Congress has the ability to cut the military’s budget, meaning it is congress who ultimately has the power to stop any military intervention.

While that is true, cutting the military budget is hardly a solution, Rep Jones explained, because the congressmen who ultimately propose cutting funding are then accused of endangering the troops caught up in the action. The point of stopping the president’s unapproved offensive is then lost in the minds of the public, and seen as leaving the troops in battle with “inadequate equipment”.

“When Mr Obama went into Libya,” Rep Jones continued, “he bypassed Congress except he did say that he’d spoken to the leadership…. I’ve been so anxious and upset that we in Congress never get the chance to debate the policy of should we still be in war, or not in war.” So Jones decided to start the House resolution.

Rep Jones read on air a quote made by VP Dick Cheney at the time of the Iraq War. “The president does not need authorization of Congress before launching a military offensive.” Jones then read a second quote, this one by Senator Obama in 2007, “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation”

Senator Obama peculiarly disagreed with Dick Cheney, and also with the future President Obama.

Rep Jones said the bill needs major support from Americans. People should call their representatives and urge them to back H Con Res 107 to stop the waging of invasions when the threat to the nation is not imminent.

Just after Rep Jones had the idea to draft this legislation, Senator Sessions had it out with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta about who the military takes its orders from. Panetta said they only needed approval from the UN or NATO, and not Congress. The Senators at the hearing were flabbergasted. Their faces turned red, and they slightly stuttered as they tried to remind Panetta and some of the military’s top brass that only Congress can give them approval for war. Not a foreign body of power.