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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Constitution -- What Constitution???

In an astounding appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta revealed how the Obama Administration thinks about the basis for military action, and those thoughts are NOT GOOD.

Panetta was asked whether or not the president could act without congrssional approval to commit US force to establishing a no-fly zone in Syria. Panetta responded that American would need a legal basis for deploying troops so we would need some resolution by NATO ro the UN Security Council. Even when Senator Jeff Sessions pointed out that the Constitution requires that only Congress can declare war, Panetta did not change his testimony. The interchange between the two is astounding. The Obamacrats now are puching the idea that some international action is needed before the US can go to war, but approval of Congress is not needed. Obama is supposed to be a Harvard trained lawyer who taught Constitutional Law. No way! Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, not the president, not the UN and not NATO.

In debate after debate Ron Paul laments the use of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan without a formal declaration of war. In those fights, however, Congress did pass resolutions authorizing the use of the armed forces which were in effect declarations of war without being called that. Now Panetta is saying that no such declaration is needed. Indeed, in Libya, Obama committed the US Air Force without any congressional authorization. It seemed an aberration at the time. Now we know it was no mistake. Obama and the Obamacrats think they can just ignore the Constitution.

Obama has got to go!

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