Syria and Presidential War Powers

At the moment, I'm not going to get into ALL of the reasons why a war, err, excuse me, "military action" on Syria is a bad idea. Aside from the fact that we'd be fighting on the same side as Al-Qaeda, whom we went to war with due to their actions exactly 12 years ago today, there is lots of conflicting info about who actually released chemical weapons. Not to mention there is no exit strategy, the tens of billions of dollars it will probably cost, the hypocrisy, and we're not even sure if the outcome will be favorable to the US. But I digress.

Nonetheless, the official line from the war propagandists like John Kerry, President Obama, Rep. Peter King, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, and many others insists that despite Obama's decision to turn the matter over to Congress, that the President still has the authority to launch an attack on his own. It's merely out of his kind benevolence that he's going to let We the Peons have a say and then, after that, maybe he'll listen to us or maybe he won't and he'll rain some peace bombs down on Syria anyway. 

Despite what they'll have you believe, he and all the other warmongerers in Congress and in the media are still dead wrong when they claim that the president has the authority to act without Congressional approval. They'll take advantage of the fact that most people either haven't read or have forgotten what was written in the Constitution and that according to our founding document, while the president is, in fact, the Commander-in-Chief of the military, that it is still Congress who must vote to decide whether to send those in uniform into battle. Once Congress votes to use military force, then the Commander-in-Chief can determine in what manner to use it, but not beforehand.

If the first round of BS doesn't pass the smell test, next the propagandists will throw out some half-baked historical precedent (which upon closer examination is usually mostly false or taken way out of context) or issue (true) claims that previous presidents have done the same thing many times so 100 wrongs must make a right, right?

Whatever it is, whatever slippery sophistry they try and sneak pass the American public does not change the fact that they are wrong. Take a look here at this article about presidential war powers by Tom Woods, written specifically as a rebuttal to all the hawks out there who are beating the war drums over this situation in Syria. Woods has a PhD in History from Columbia University and is also a Constitutional scholar. In this article, he rebuts some of the most common arguments the neocons use in order to convince the public that the President can go to war whenever he wants.

Why should you believe Tom Woods over some of the other intellectuals out there with (or without) fancy degrees and impressive credentials? Well, I think primarily because when he makes his arguments, he goes out of his way to cite the Founders themselves via their own words at the Constitutional Conventions or in the Federalist papers. It is in those words, letters, and papers that the true intent of the Framers becomes clear. Everyone else, of course, ignores these sources and hopes most people don't know about them because they unequivocally refute the lame arguments the opinion-makers try and thrust upon us to justify their illegal or immoral acts.

Bookmark Tom's page so that you can use it as a rebuttal the next time you hear someone mindlessly parrot what the talking heads fallaciously told them on TV to further their own agenda. And while you're at it, don't forget to sign-up for Tom Woods's Liberty Classroom where you can continue learning about the history and economics they never taught you in high school or that you've since forgotten. For only $99/year you can get an in-depth education on myriad subjects like Constitutional History, Logic, Western Civilization, and more. That's great value considering you'd pay thousands of dollars at a university to learn almost the same thing.

It's time to arm yourself with information and knowledge to combat the ceaseless lies and propaganda that come from our government and our media. Much to the dismay of The Powers That Be (TPTB), Americans are slowly but surely wising up to their schemes and are seeing through their smokescreen. Are you one of them?