It is somewhat alarming to hear cable news pundits questioning the motives of the President in seeking Congressional approval for military actions against the Syrian government. Some of the questions being bounced around the broadcast echo chamber:
"Doesn't this project weakness"
"What will the Syrian rebels think?"
"Is it because David Cameron didn't get support in the UK?"
Firstly, I don't think the US, which possesses the most powerful military in the history of militaries, needs to worry overmuch about appearing weak. We are well known for our capacity and proclivity for force.
I am also not overly concerned with the opinion of the Syrian rebels, who are fighting either for or against Al Qaeda, depending upon the news source. I do not mean to sound callous; I saw the horrific images of the victims, the innumerable small bodies of dead children among them, just as most of you did. Many times that number have been killed through the regime's use of conventional ordinance in actions prior to the recent chemical attacks. Still, the decision to deploy American military power remains in American hands, and must be made with all due consideration.
As for Mr. Cameron, the Prime Minister tried to provide the President with the cover an international coalition, but his parliament did not see things his way. This is at least partly the result of the credibility deficit from which our intelligence proclamations suffer post-Iraq, due to the failure to turn up WMDs. This is the international political equivalent of the parable of the Little Boy who Cried Wolf.
The administration has made it clear, however, that it is quite willing to proceed with unilateral action. Before we do, though, the President has decided to allow our parliament the same opportunity as Mr. Cameron's.
In a former life, the President was a constitutional law professor - how many of the knee-jerk critics can boast as much? I think the administration, not to mention the Constitution, will ultimately benefit from erring on the side of caution - even though the President has made it known that he believes that ordering the strikes does lie firmly within the authorities granted by the War Powers Act.
The act was passed in 1973 by a Congressional override of President Nixon’s veto. The legislative branch was concerned over the prolonged incursions in Korea and Vietnam without a Declaration of War, seeing in these actions an erosion of their authority. It was intended to limit powers available to the Executive branch in cases where it did not seek approval from Congress.
We’ve already allowed our reputation as a coherent democratic state and responsible international actor to be immeasurably damaged through covert drone strikes, black site prisons, indefinite detentions at Gitmo and NSA surveillance of untold scope. There is only so much mud left available for our name to be dragged through.
Let us not forget that the world has been calling us to move in for a long time. Now that we are moving toward intervening in some way the British, who balked loudly and often that we were not acting, have decided that it is not something we need to get involved. I agree that Syria is another Middle East Quagmire, perhaps someone somewhere might have been thinking of a strategy to help these poor folks and then GTFO. Not every country/people is conducive to American Democracy. If The United Sates of America wants to be THE World Superpower, than we need figure things out and follow through. This pussy-footed, half-assed attempt at Imperialism is just killing a generation of our strongest and brightest. Our business community has made us an Imperial Juggernaut, through the ironically titled "Globalization;" where under the guise of free traded our companies rape and pillage other countries with gangster partners and thugs we use as puppets to control the people of the these nations. It is time to either show the occupied and enslave their true place in the world or to retreat from this position. It is only in one of these courses of action that we can truly see the devastating impact we are having on the world, and thereby have to the faculty to make an informed decision about how we as Americans wished to seen by both the world and history.
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