President Obama close to authorizing mission led by the US military to train moderate Syrian rebels

[merrily]

26. It's an attempt to end run the Constitutional requirement of a Congressional vote

on Syria, which is where Obama ran into trouble on this as to Syria before. And Libya before that.

Several members of Congress sued over Libya and the case was dismissed for lack of standing because they could not prove that they were representing Congress officially. IOW, the court treated them as though they were private citizens suing because Obama had not sought a vote from Congress first. (Which proves their law firm did not do its homework because there was precedent for that holding. The lawyer first claimed Obama was not acting consistently with the War Powers Act, when there are also serious questions about the constitutionality of the War Powers Act.)

However, as to Syria, many members of Congress signed onto a petition telling Obama he had to ask Congress first. And, the Speaker of the House sent Obama a letter asking about fourteen legal questions about Obama's plans for Syria. Had the Speaker moved into court on behalf of the House, the standing issue that torpedoed the Libya lawsuit would have disappeared. (Whether a committee of 100 or so members of Congress would have saved the Libya suit is debatable.)

So, I guess the admin dusted off the "training" ploy used to wedge us into the Vietnam "Era." I don't know if the same ploy was used for the Korean "Police Action." But, Congress did not declare war in either of those instances--and our useless media cooperated by adopting the "Era" and "Police Action" terminology. I've seen clips of Bob Hope greeting the troops in Vietnam with "Hello, advisors," and hearing their bitter-sounding laughter in response.


But, of course, that was Truman, who had dropped out of junior college after one semester and was never able to make a go of anything he attempted, other than, oddly enough, soldiering and the Presidency. (He makes a lot of Ten Best US Presidents Ever lists.) And now we have a constitutional law professor following Truman's lead.

Even if you never read the Constitution, raise your hand if you understand why the Founders required our Congressional representatives to vote before the children and money of voters were sent to a fight, rather than leaving it to one individual, in this case, a lame duck individual to boot.