Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

posted by The Vidiot @ 5:03 PM Permalink

Bump and update, see below.

What's wrong with this sentence:

Excerpt: But with Iran measures possibly headed to the House floor as early as today, it is unclear if Democrats have the votes to pass legislation calling for the president to seek authorization from Congress for a preemptive strike on Iran.

Pardon me, but isn't a CONSTITUTIONAL NECESSITY that the president ask the Congress for permission to go to war? Why are they asking him to ask? They shouldn't even be DEMANDING that he ask. They shouldn't have to. He has to ask. Period.

However, we've been living in bizarro world for a while now. You'd think I'd be used to it.

ADDITION: by The Sailor

Yes, only congress can declare war ... but that doesn't mean the president won't start one and just say it's not a 'war.' (See 'Police Action' AKA Korea; see 'military engagement' AKA Vietnam, more here.)

And Bush was certainly pushing for a war, (I don't care what they call it, if our troops are fighting and dying over there, it's a war), with Iran. It was the next step in the neocon playbook. We saw the same ramp up in rhetoric, the posturing ... and yet it didn't happen. Why? The military wouldn't go along with it.

CENTCOM Commander's Veto Sank Bush's Threatening Gulf Buildup

Admiral William Fallon, then President George W. Bush's nominee to head the Central Command (CENTCOM), expressed strong opposition in February to an administration plan to increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three and vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM, according to sources with access to his thinking.
[...]
Fallon's refusal to support a further naval buildup in the Gulf reflected his firm opposition to an attack on Iran and an apparent readiness to put his career on the line to prevent it. A source who met privately with Fallon around the time of his confirmation hearing and who insists on anonymity quoted Fallon as saying that an attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch".

Asked how he could be sure, the source says, Fallon replied, "You know what choices I have. I'm a professional." Fallon said that he was not alone, according to the source, adding, "There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box."

I certainly echo Vid when she talks about the bizarro world we live in. Whoda cast Ashcroft as a defender of the Constitution and a general as preventing a war!?

Labels: Iran, Iraq, more Bush lies