Acts of War

Wait a minute, please all Trump people and all republicans. 

And here I thought the US Congress was the only way the US government and our nation could declare war? 

Just now a story came on the news that President Trump ordered cruise missile strikes in Syria. That is an act of war. 

A story was also posted that President Trump has decided to go it alone in dealing with North Korea? The North Koreans then launch a missile as President Trump meets with Xi Jinping of China. Another story came out that Assad gassed civilians in Syria! Looks like the Big Trump got conned by both Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad and Kim Jong-un. So the Big Trump blamed it all on Obama. 

Neither Donald Trump nor Mike Pence nor Mitch McConnell nor Paul Ryan has ever served one day in active military service to America. They know nothing about security. No republican since George Bush, Senior or Eisenhower has had a clue about security or how to carry on a war. Look at Iraq since 9/11.  Look at Afghanistan. It is not Obama who set up the war in those places. It was republican egotists. Remember Donald Rumsfeld’s unforgettable media line “Shock and Awe!” used to describe the bombings and killings of thousands of civilians and enemy soldiers. Ike had respect for the dead. Rumsfeld and Cheney and the Bush gang did not. The Trump and Pence gang have even less integrity. In the Pay-Per-Vote™ Congress the budget for “defense” spending grows geometrically. 

Now, why is there so much anger these days? And stupidity? Sadly, blindly, millions voted their anger and their stupids. Is this the reason we have little but falsehood and fake Christian dogma coming from the White House media muppets. 

And the other day someone said, "What exactly is the 'Christian dogma?' No doubt I would prefer Christian dogma to Islamic dogma any day." 

Martin Pitts reply, "You are correct. Any fool can see it must be better to be burned at the stake than to be beheaded." 

Because of bags of money in our elections and enraptured leaders, 21st Century America is both a 20th Century Banana Republic and a bigoted human rights wasteland. Money talks and ethics walks for the republicans and all of their shills in the Pay-Per-Vote™ Congress, the Courts and in state governments! 

What would a trickle down originalist like Judge Neil Gorsuch say about this?  Syria did not attack us.  Syria and Assad are killing their own people, not ours.  The International Court of Justice (Cour internationale de justice) at the Hague in the Netherlands is empowered to prosecute war criminals like Bashar al-Assad.  Both the USA and Russia are signatories at the ICJ, since 1945.  It is treason to carry out a war without the direct declaration of the US Congress. 

The US Constitution Article I  Section. 8.   

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

… 

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 

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Tchoupitoulas Street Uptown New Orleans 1968
Vietnam War Military Ambulances ready for lading
Photo Copyright © 1969 Martin Pitts