I have a confession. I skipped President Barack Obama’s “AfPak Strategy” speech last night. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a well-delivered homily from time to time (I do), nor was my inattention attributable to a lack of reverence for the POTUS (though I will admit to a lingering reservation or two concerning his fitness for what, before him, was the most powerful office in the world). It was just that I had other plans, obligations really, for Tuesday eve. The grout in our guest bathroom was just a disgrace, the dog was waaaaay overdue for waxing, and I had this ingrown toenail that had been festering for days ….
I did, however, manage to squeeze a few minutes out of this morning’s schedule (between turning over the compost pile and changing the sugar-water in the hummingbird feeder) to peruse a couple of news accounts of the speech. As near as I can tell, it had little salutary effect on anyone except Chris Matthews who, though he decried the venue, the tone and the content of the Obamaspiel, still enjoys a good leg tingle now and then. Oh, Senator McCain seemed genuinely unhappy also, but it was difficult to tell if it was the speech that upset him, or a flare-up of hemorrhoids. Rahm Emanuel probably liked it a lot, but he was asleep in his coffin this morning and couldn’t be reached for comment.
The general thrust of the speech was that some 30,000 (or so) military personnel will be sent to Afghanistan and associated environs sometime between now and the next millenium, to both kill bad guys and to teach Afghanis how to kill bad guys too. Obama was at pains to emphasize that we would prevail, no matter the odds, no matter the costs, no matter the sacrifice … as long as it didn’t take more than a few months. If this thing runs on until it begins to rub up against the next election cycle, well then … all bets are off, and he will have to go back to gestating yet another strategy, presumably one that will this time assign blame for the mess to George W. Bush … or maybe Bibi Netanyahu … or even those pesky right-wing Quakers.
Me? I’d bring ‘em home … all of them … this afternoon. Don’t misunderstand … I enthusiastically support a strong national defense; I believe wholeheartedly in that ethos that axiomatically values peace through strength. But I am also unequivocally committed to the notion that a constitutional basis must underlie everything we do as a nation, as a people, and as a society – and the war(s) to which we are currently dedicating so much of our national resources, both human and material, are being prosecuted on blatantly unconstitutional grounds. War, in itself, is a political contrivance, and, taken in vacuo, can be neither constitutional or otherwise; like Bill Clinton, it just is. But the manner of proceeding to war, i.e., the basis on which it is undertaken, is, in this nation, directly and unavoidably subject to constitutional scrutiny, and our involvement in this war (like several in the past) clearly does not pass constitutional muster.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 unambiguously assigns both authority and responsibility for declaring war to the Congress – and, in the current Afghan conflict (as well as several others, as already stated), it has never done so. There are those, of course, who claim that the War Powers Resolution of 1973 provides both the enabling and controlling authority for “undeclared” wars, but conveniently ignore the fact that every president since its inception has (correctly) considered the WPR73 unconstitutional, and has paid, at best, lip service to it. It hangs on our body politic like a withered appendage because our federal judiciary doesn’t have the stones to tackle the issue, not to mention that no politician in his/her right mind will go anywhere near it. The fact that this pernicious piece of congressional mischief still exists as a viable legal operant is a national disgrace.
You wanna whup up on the Taliban/Al Qaeda goons? Good on ya … me too. But do it like the Fathers prescribed – declare war and then go get ‘em. Otherwise, quit schlepping around, pretending that we’re just poor misunderstood white knights trying to bring a little harmony to Camelot. If you can’t (or won’t) do that then bring our people home!
Be well.










