Will Boehner Stop Our Rogue President? – Antiwar.com website published this article on August 30. The piece is written by Patrick Buchanan, a journalist, a writer, the author of bestseller The Death of the West, a man with rich political background: he has been a senior advisor to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996. He ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election.
The article appeared just a few hours before British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been one the most ardent advocates of Euro-Atlantic alliance war against Syria the last few months, suffered a resounding defeat in the British parliament. The motion to launch a military operation against Syria was rejected by 285 to 272 vote ruling out joining US-led strikes. The defeat was called «almost unprecedented» by the Guardian, as well as «humbling and catastrophic» by the Mirror. The Cameron’s loss of parliamentary vote is a signal of possible political storm in the United States…
With sharp sarcasm Patrick Buchanan notes that John Andrew Boehner, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, could inform Barack Obama about what the US Constitution says about the President’s war powers. Then the President would know that under the Constitution, in the absence of an attack on the United States, Congress alone has the authority to decide whether the United States goes to war. As Speaker, he can call the House back on Monday to debate, and decide, whether to authorize the war Obama is about to start. In the absence of a Congressional vote for war, Boehner should remind the President that U.S. cruise missile strikes on Syria, killing soldiers and civilians alike, would be the unconstitutional and impeachable acts of a rogue President. Moreover, an attack on Syria would be an act of stupidity on the part of the one who sanctions it…
«Does Obama really want to start a war, the extent and end of which he cannot see, that is likely to escalate, as its promoters intend and have long plotted, into a U.S. war on Iran? Has the election in Iran of a new president anxious to do a deal with America on Iran’s nuclear program caused this panic in the War Party?», says the man who is an old hand in politics having worked under three presidents.
What will happen afterwards? Iran has a population the size of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq combined, and sits astride the Straits of Hormuz through which the free world’s oil flows.
«And who will be our foremost fighting ally in Syria should we attack Assad’s army? The Al-Nusra Front, an arm of al-Qaida and likely successor to power, should Assad fall», Mr. Buchanan says.
It’s a breath taking prospect for a country that still has fresh memories of 9/11.
«Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad», Patrick Buchanan says at the end of his piece. The article is a merciless blow against rogue-President and reflects the growing indignation over the President Obama’s policy. This time the criticism is bipartisan. As of August 30, 140 members of Congress from the both parties signed the letter which states it clearly that President Obama will violate the Constitution by giving an order to strike Syria without getting approval from Congress.
Congress will convene after recess on September 9. Will President Obama take the decision ahead of the date? The administration officials appear to be in a hurry to push through the «final decision» on Syria before the UN inspectors come up with the investigation results to determine if the Syria’s government is really responsible for the use of chemical weapons. Today, the President will have to launch the operation without even formal international support! The fact that Great Britain, which has faithfully followed the United States in all the wars since the Soviet Union vanished from the world map, has decided to keep away from interference into the conflict in Syria has spurred hesitation among the Euro-Atlantic ranks.
The indignation expressed by Patrick J. Buchanan and the growing protests in the United States and the whole world against the military adventure in works may hit the wall because the mechanism to launch the military operation is on and counting. Too much is at stake now, too many efforts have been applied to prepare one more change of government – perhaps the most bloody American intervention since former Yugoslavia…
Too often one can hear that it’s not Barack Obama himself who is heading to war; he is just the one being «pushed». There are various stories trying to highlight the question who exactly is behind the President’s decisions influencing his will. Some point a finger at the Pentagon, some at US Jewish lobby, some say it’s Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who is described by the Wall Street Journal as the most powerful and influential geopolitical operator. It’s all not that important actually. What really matters is will gods destroy the man in the White House who is vested with the power to give the US armed forces an order to start another war?
