President Trump Vetoes Iran War Powers Resolution
This resolution passed the Senate 55-45 and it passed the House 227-186. The Iran War Powers Resolution would’ve limited President Trump’s options should military retaliation against Iran been merited. President Trump argued that the Republicans who sided with the Democrats played into the Democrats’ hands with their votes.
As for Iran, they are demanding that the US drop sanctions. Additionally, they want the US to compensate Iran for the damages caused by re-imposing the sanctions. They see this as a requirement before they would enter negotiations. They also claim that they would have a crushing response if an arms embargo against them is extended.
From Fox News:
“The resolution implies that the president’s constitutional authority to use military force is limited to defense of the United States and its forces against imminent attack,” he said. “That is incorrect. We live in a hostile world of evolving threats, and the Constitution recognizes that the president must be able to anticipate our adversaries’ next moves and take swift and decisive action in response. That’s what I did!”
Tensions between Washington and Tehran has increased sharply since Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed crippling economic sanctions.
Escalations have cooled somewhat in recent weeks as attention has been diverted on combating the coronavirus. However, Trump said last month that he instructed the Navy to “shoot down and destroy” any Iranian gunboats harassing American ships in the Persian Gulf.
In response, Iran’s military chief of the Revolutionary Guard Corps said his troops will “destroy any American terrorist force” that threatens its ships in the region.
Both countries are also engaged in a dispute over a United Nations arms embargo set to expire in October. U.S. officials said they will seek to extend it to prevent Tehran from acquiring conventional weapons.
Fox News has the article here.
When the Iranians start tossing nukes provided by Communist Chinese technology and Obama money, maybe then our do nothing kongress kritters will finally realize that neither of them are our friends. Sadly, that realization may come too late.
No, no they won’t – at least they won’t admit it.
Their convoluted thinking will somehow make it the fault of Trump and the Deplorables.
They will deny reality until they die.
Dems in the Senate want to override Trump’s veto, but there is no way they’ll get the two-thirds majority required to do so. The vote will be along party lines, with the possible exception of Mittens.
Yep, “Mitttens” Romney is as much of a RINO as Jeff [the] Flake, former AZ Senator.
“As for Iran, they are demanding that the US drop sanctions. Additionally, they want the US to compensate Iran for the damages caused by re-imposing the sanctions.”
As an old captain I used to work for used to say: “Oh yeah? Well, people in Hell want ice water. What the hell makes you special?”
I prefer “shit in one hand and ‘want’ in the other and see which one fills up faster.”
Good.
Sucks to be Iran. But isn’t that kind of the point of this exercise?
Isn’t it interesting how the lefties and jellies in Congress and Senate don’t care about Executive Authority in the USA unless it can be used to pander to some anti-US group or nation?
For the record…yes, the Constitutional wartime authority of the President is limited to responding actual attacks. The authority to declare war is a Congressional authority.
But…that is spilt milk under the bridge now. Congress has abandoned its responsibilities in this regard and all authority now rests with the Executive by operation of precedent.
It isn’t ideal, but we can thank the congress of the cold war era for this problem.
And yes, this will bite us right in the arse once we have gone full potato socialist.
In the modern age, the post Mobility Revolution period, conflicts are fought across many domains, and restricting the President’s ability and authority to conduct war undermines his bargaining power and diplomatic options.
The enemy has to believe war is an option on the table.
If congress is the sole proprietary of war powers, then the enemy has several options to avoid war, from influencing fellow travelers to blackmail, to outright buying votes.
However, the Constitution is explicit. The power to declare war rests with Congress. Doesn’t matter if that seems unwise. That’s the written rule.
It also makes the President, not Congress, the commander of the Armed Forces.
So he can clearly respond to attacks with “fight back”, etc.
Where the limit is on that seems quite fuzzy, especially when one considers all the work on setting up our retaliatory capabilities for our “nuclear triad”.
And if the President could “launch on warning” and wipe out millions, he certainly can order the Navy to sink some threatening gunboats.
And maybe their base.
And the supporting command and control
And “oops. No need to declare war. Already wiped out the threat”
(Not as far fetched as one might think)
The current problem is that Congress wants it both ways: a tame and same-party President to do the needful distasteful things, but still pretend that Congress is holding the leash, and when the inevitable opposition president gets in, well, he can’t do nuthin.
And Trump is apparently quite adept at reading obscure rules to find exploitable loopholes.
“The current problem is that Congress wants it both ways: a tame and same-party President to do their needful distasteful things, but still pretend that Congress is holding the leash, and when the inevitable opposition president gets in, well, he can’t do nuthin”.
I made a minor correction. I would’ve put “their” in italics, but I don’t know how.
FWIW: now a moot point. The Senate didn’t override.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-fails-to-override-trump-veto-on-iran-war-powers
The War Powers Resolution (it was actually passed as a joint resolution vice the normal lawmaking process) is always trotted out as some kind of attempt by Congress to “reel in” the POTUS. In reality, exact opposite is true – because the WPR gives the POTUS specific statutory authority the POTUS never had previously.
Under the WPR, the POTUS has the authority to commit US forces to hostilities for up to 60 days via Presidential order. At that point, absent a Congressional OK he has to order their withdraw – but can take up to 30 days to complete that withdrawal so if conditions require.
Previous to the WPR, immediate self-defense operations (nuclear attack response is included in that category) were all that were envisioned on Presidential authority alone. 60 days of combat operations IMO is a helluva lot more than “neutralizing the immediate threat”.
Once again, Congress screwed up by-the-numbers when it passed the WPR.
Now, someone remind me: which party had veto-proof majorities in both houses of Congress when the WPR was passed?
You say that as if each party only wants the president from their party to have these capabilities and only want to limit the powers of a president in the opposing party?
Nah, that couldn’t be it. They are only looking out for our best interests, they said so.
The other issue with the WPA is that it has no “teeth.” IOW if Congress says “OK, Mr. President, per the WPR, you MUST withdraw troops within X days” the president can say “or what?”
The only mechanism Congress has to enforce a WPR is that they can refuse to fund it – which is an authority that they had before the WPA was created and which is independent of the WPA.
So, the bottom line is that the WPA gives Congress exactly nothing that they don’t have WITHOUT the WPA – the ability to tie the purse strings and refuse to fund the President’s military adventures.
Of course, in this day and age, if Congress WERE to try this tactic, there would also be nothing to prevent the President from appealing directly to the American people and say “Your congressmen are preventing me from funding our troops in harms way.”
The Iran nuke deal was precisely that; a deal. That deal, like the Paris Climate “Accord” is no more legally binding than the “no crosses count” deals all of us made on the playground back in the day. If you want to unilaterlally enact deals with your pen and phone, the next guy can, and did, unilaterally reject them. Good for him, too.
I’m thinking it was more of a payoff by Barry Obama and his band of idiots.
They both were, that’s why they could say neither was technically a “treaty” which required Congress’ approval, so they could get away with implementing each.
I remember the week the Iran thing was happening. Everyday it was a new version of the “truth” and what the deal was about the money we were sending them and why.
DO something? The US doesn’t have to “do something” (commission), attack and make war.
But we CAN “do something” (omission), sanctions and interdiction (not allowing ships to travel and deliver to Iran).
Frankly, I like the second (omission) option better. Generally, safer, and less chance of a shooting war, wasting of money, resources, and young’uns.
Wait, wasn’t the Iran Nuclear Deal and easing sanctions a part of the B. Hussein 0bama legacy? If so, then those seeking to limit President Trump are doing little more than being candyassed suck-up snotnosed 0bamites!
Ooo, I’m soooo scared. What’re you going to do, hit us with that poorly copied F-5 or your Tomcats being held together with duct tape and bailing wire?
Once again, if the mad mullahs are upset, we’re doing something right.
And, FWIW: I’m surprised no one posted this already either here or in comments to today’s other, related article. Enjoy. (smile)
And, for our humor-challenged readers (I’m talking to you, Poodle): chill – it’s a joke.
Nothing like a visual of an aerial Artillery Platform earning its’ keep! HT to my Blood Brother of the Same Mother, a proud retiree of SAC!
I remember that from when I was in school. Good stuff.
…..Well!
aren’t we -fierce-!
Whoopsie.
That was supposed to be for the Mad Mullah thread.
More imperial presidency and more celebrations by his cult.
Disgusting.
He is an absolute draft dodging coward piece of shit. But he would go to war if he thought it would help him win an election.
Fortunately, I don’t think it would so I don’t think he will.
I’d say nuke DC from orbit, but Pelosi is back home in her mansion because she doesn’t want to go to work while Americans suffer. So it wouldn’t cover enough of the problem there.
Plus she can use her $25k refrigerator as a bomb shelter and choke down $15/pint ice cream while Lars is sucking hind tit on the other side of Gay Bay, glowing in the dark with the rest of the dumbfounded dipshits.
Does baby need a bottle?
You whine like a power steering pump low on fluid.
No president is going to sign anything that limits his own power, unless said president is a lame duck and someone from the other party is coming in after him. Sadly, Congress has allowed the executive to become far more powerful than originally intended. A president would be a fool to start giving that power back to Congress.
Dear Dipshit,
I dare say if you were 20 years older, you would have been milking those deferments like a bull.
That sounds very much like the Obama regime, does it not? As I recall, pallets of cash were second only to drone strikes. And your liberal left compadres happily ejaculated. Every. Time.
Wrong imperium. It isn’t the dictatorship over the proletariat.
Disgusting is a commissioned officer violating Article 88.
“draft dodging coward piece of shit”
Lemme guess, you were at best sucking hind teat
while the draft was in effect. If someone from
that era were say the same of Trump I would consider
debating the issue with them. But you never have and
never will be exposed to a draft other than that
coming from your mouth.
Ask Lars how many deferments Bernie got.
Don’t expect a straight answer.
Could you imagine having Bernie in your company and trying to get that engine started? The fucker was kicked out of a hippie commune for being lazy and a distraction will all his lefty talk.
Actually, I will ask the question, dipshit:
How many deferments did your asshole Bernie avail himself to back in the day?
Think carefully.