These are truly troubling days
for liberty in the United States.
Last week the 60 day deadline
for the president to gain congressional approval for our military engagement
in Libya under the War Powers Resolution came and went. The media scarcely
noticed. The bombings continued. We had a hearing on Capitol Hill on the
subject, but the administration refuses to bother with the legality of its
new war. It is unclear if Mr. Obama will ever obtain congressional consent,
and astonishingly it is being argued that he doesn't need it.
Article 1 Section 8 of the
Constitution begs to differ. It clearly states that the power to declare war
rests within the legislative branch - the branch closest to the people. The
founders were a war-weary people, and the requirement that it would take an
act of Congress to go to war was intentional. They believed war was not to be
entered into lightly, so they resisted granting such decision making
authority to one person. They objected to absolute warmaking power granted to
Kings. It would be incredibly naïve to think a dictator could not or would
not wrest power in this country.
Our Presidents can now, on
their own: order assassinations, including American citizens; operate secret
military tribunals; engage in torture; enforce indefinite imprisonment
without due process; order searches and seizures without proper warrants,
gutting the 4th Amendment; ignore the 60 day rule for reporting to the
Congress the nature of any military operations as required by the War Power
Resolution; continue the Patriot Act abuses without oversight; wage war at
will; and treat all Americans as suspected terrorists at airports with TSA
groping and nude x-rays.
Americans who are not alarmed
by all of this are either not paying close attention, or are too trusting of
current government officials to be concerned. Those in power right now might
be trustworthy, upstanding people. But what of the leaders of the future?
They will inherit all the additional powers we cede to the current position
holders. Can we trust that they will not take advantage? Today's best
intentions create loopholes and opportunities for tomorrow's tyrants.
Perhaps the most troubling
power grab of late is the mission creep associated with the 9/11 attacks and
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Initiated as targeted strikes against the
perpetrators of 9/11, a decade later we are still at war. With whom? Last
week Congress passed a Defense Authorization bill with some very disturbing
language that explicitly extends the president's war powers to just about
anybody. Section 1034 of that bill states that we are at war with the
Taliban, al Qaeda, and associated forces. Who are the associated forces? It
also includes anyone who has supported hostilities in aid of an organization
that substantially supports these associated forces. This authorization is
not limited by geography, and it has no sunset provision. It doesn't matter
if these associated forces are American citizens. Your constitutional rights
no longer apply when the United States is "at war" with you. Would
it be so hard for someone in the government to target a political enemy and
connect them to al Qaeda, however tenuously, and have them declared an
associated force?
My colleague Congressman
Justin Amash spearheaded an effort to have this troubling language removed,
but unfortunately it failed by a vote of 234 to 187. It is unfortunate
indeed, that so many in Congress accept unlimited warmaking authority in the
hands of the executive branch.