Well, the news wasn’t being very helpful to me today. It was a struggle trying to find something to write about that another writer hadn’t covered. I finally found one from earlier today that I could use. It’s a little more in-depth coverage of whether or not what Trump did a week ago was legal, or Constitutional, or was it?
My mind is already made up, unsurprisingly, of course, but there’s some interesting information to include. I just thought about whether or not it counted as an act of war or not. That part is a bit of a question. Hmmmm. Well, moving right along, here, from Sabrina Haake via AlterNet:
While the long-term or immediate-term fallout from Trump’s decision to bomb Iran’s enriched uranium facilities remains to be seen, legal experts are still debating whether Trump’s conduct was Constitutional. There are plenty of legal opinions on both sides. Here’s mine: No, it wasn’t, because there was no evidence that either the US or Israel faced an imminent threat; Israel announced that it had set back Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon by several years, days before Trump jumped into the brawl. Three or four years is not “imminent” under anyone’s definition. Worse, by unilaterally bombing a sovereign nation that had not attacked the US, despite the laudable goal of disarming a terrorist-supporting state, Trump has accelerated the US’s dangerous slide into authoritarianism. The Founders intended for Congress, not the president, to declare war.
So was this bombing an act of war, or a one-time event? What’s the answer to that? Now, we know that Trump would happily bomb some place again. It keeps the American people looking at something besides the mess he has put us in domestically. It lets him pound his chest and tell the world how powerful we are.
Except we aren’t, not with him as president. Intelligence reports were coming through within a few hours, telling us the bombs didn‘t do what Trump said they did. Remember OBLITERATED? Yea, no. Our government *here* was crowing about this amazing thing that happened, even when proven wrong. How on earth do you keep celebrating something like that?
But, back to our story. I looked up “presidential military powers”. Here’s what the AI search came back with. “The President of the United States holds significant military powers as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. These powers, while substantial, are not absolute and are balanced by Congressional authority, particularly the power to declare war.” And that’s where we get into a gray area. Was this a one-time act? That’s covered and is okay. Act of War? No, that’s Congress. Let’s hear from Sabrina again – multiple quotes here:
So what, then, did Trump care about before taking the extraordinary risk of entering the Middle East’s forever war? The timing suggests it wasn’t strategy. It was ego. Trump pulled the trigger following two globally embarrassing events. His $45 million strongman military parade was an international joke outside of Fox News stations. Equally awful for a demagogue, Trump was roundly embarrassed at the G7 meeting while Netanyahu was enjoying extraordinary success in Iran. In a widely under-reported story, Trump said he left the G7 early to “deal with” Israel, which apparently meant posting childish and impulsive warlock braggadocio on Truth Social. He beat his breast hard enough to signal Iran to move its 900 lb stash of enriched uranium, which put Israel—and us—in further danger, the outcome of which cannot yet be known.
Trump desperately needed to recast himself as a strongman for the rest of the world. After a full day of watching Fox News lavish Netanyahu with praise, Trump changed his mind. When he saw how Netanyahu was being praised as powerful and strategic, he wanted in on the action. In further support of this theory, Trump also started taking immediate credit for Israel’s successes. He claimed on June 17 in a Truth Social post that “We” have taken control of Iran’s airspace, and that a meeting with his national security advisers had cemented the decision to enter the war. The fallout from Trump’s unilateral and unconstitutional decision to bomb Iran may take months. It may take years.
Despite Iran agreeing to a ceasefire, only a moron would think “Death to America” Iranian mullahs will walk away and convert their 900 lbs of enriched uranium to candle wax. It’s virtually certain that they, or their terrorist proxies, will strike back when we least expect it. If Trump visited this level of risk on Americans based on jealousy and his personal ego, we won’t survive his presidency.
I know that was a big gulp of excerpts there. And there is much more to her article. I only used a few pieces. You can read the whole thing from the link at the beginning. We still can’t be sure if it was or wasn’t legal, and if it was or wasn’t unconstitutional. We only know that it was El Presidente Imbécil’s ego talking. This event will be analyzed for years. If he does something crazy like this again, well, we’ll be able to discuss for or against, and likely be dragged into something else. Gawd help us. Thanks for sticking with me!
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