Israel strikes Iran (Update: US Bombs Iran at #848)

It requires notification “within 48 hours” of committing troops to hostilities, not 48 hours before.

And while beyond the scope of this post, the “not in compliance with the War Powers Act!” noise is a bit entertaining. Every single President since the War Powers Resolution was enacted has taken the position that multiple provisions of it are unconstitutional, there are a few provisions that Presidents don’t even try to comply with, and it ignores the distinction between “declaring war” and “waging war.”

 

Ray McGovern last Monday June 16

 

I think the issue is that the most recent public data on how many we were acquiring comes from 2015 and was “at least 20.”

The odds that we actually only made one round of purchases in 2015, bought 20, and have never acquired a single additional bomb in the intervening decade seem very low to me.

 

For Gods sake don't attack India, where else would we get our doctors from and those phone operators who barely speak English that we get transferred to all the time.

 

We committed troops to a conflict?

Those poor MOAB's ...

...their children will never see them again....

 

Obama, along with Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—plus Germany) along with the European Union negotiated the JPCOA. The objective was to turn Iran's nuclear program to peaceful means, Trump blew it up.

No, I didn't say the same thing about Obama assassinating OBL. His administration relied on the existing 2001 authorization for use of military force to "use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."

I do agree on the need for surprise, but you rely on Congressional leaders who take their Constitutional authority seriously.

 

12 bombs or 6 pairs since they come in pairs?

 

Iran is supposed to be very good at cyberwarfare. We might be finding out how good pretty soon. Learned a few things about cyber many years ago from Arnaud de Borchgrave when he was at the CSIS policy research org and think tank. Don't know if our nuclear power plants can be hacked. A hacker on X a few days ago was saying they can be (in his opinion).

 

Are Airmen not considered troops? Did we not have then enter a war zone?

And R Representative Thomas Massie believes the bombing were unconstitutional. And yes, the War Powers Act has been contested by Presidents from both sides. But until the SCOTUS rules, it's still the law. And it would be silly law if the President could wait 48 hours after an attack to notify Congress. Especially when the whole world already knows.

 

Why?

We went into Iraq with ambitious aspirations. Some might say pie in the sky, to psychotic aspirations, but either way, it was an affirmative decision. We don't need to go in.

Just castrate the bull(y) from on high, and on wit bidniz n life...

Death to Iran! (their malignant regime anyway...Im sure there are ppl of good will in Iran...).

 

We delivered Kung Pao and they made a pu pu platter.

 

We do. They don't.

 

In my opinion Iran may have some nukes. As I wrote 20 years ago:

Arnaud de Borchgrave writes in an August 12, 2005 column that in June, 2002, Yuri Baluyevsky, then Russian Deputy Chief of Staff, stated that "Iran does have nuclear weapons. But these are non-strategic." By non-strategic, according to de Borchgrave, Baluyevsky is indicating that Iran has not yet developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on the 1200-mile range Shahab-3 missiles that Tehran says it has.

Gregory Copley believes Iran does have nukes sitting on ballistic missiles. A former Iranian diplomat whose name I forget how to spell (~Homayun) worked with Copley at the International Strategic Studies Association. Iran supposedly had a joint program with North Korea to develop nukes. It also has been alleged that iIran bought nukes from Kazakhstan and Ukraine when the USSR dissolved.

All I'm saying is we can't assume that Iran has 0 nukes. Just my opinion.

 

I don't think you can just drop bombs and leave. Obliterating Saddam and the power dynamics just led to a worse group in ISIS forming that terrorized the ME that we had to deal with. Who knows what will transpire in Iran.

 

The Obama administration took the position that they didn’t have to comply with the 60-day withdrawal provisions of the Resolution because bombing missions on Libya were limited in nature and didn’t rise to the level of “hostilities” under the Resolution.

SCOTUS will never rule on it. There’s been one attempt to enforce the War Powers Resolution (against Clinton), and it got dismissed as a non-justiciable political question. It’s a faulty law with its own Constitutional problems, and there’s no indication that it will ever amount to anything more than Presidents ignoring parts of it, some members of Congress whining about it, and people failing to recognize that it has no actual teeth.

 

Have the Dems lauded Trump for the mostly peaceful flyover of Iran?

 

Sure we can, but notice that we left Saddam in power in the wake of gulf war 1 ('91), and again, we've let the Ayatolla live to make a decision. Tonight was simply a matter of helping him in the decision making process, as he seemed to be having a really hard time with a pretty damn easy decision.

More help to come, should he continue having trouble with this simple common sense multiple choice test.

But he's still in power, still gets to make the decision.

Just. A. Weeeee. Little. Help.