| June
23, 2006
Who Will Hold Them Accountable?
Iraq: Fool Me Twice
By Col.
DAN SMITH
A
date to remember will be the night of June 20, 2006. That’s
the night Congress was fooled for the second time.
Remember October 2002 and Iraq?
So
much has happened since then that it seems like ancient history.
Or
at least that is what the Bush administration would like to have
the public think. One constant theme that emanates from the White
House is that whatever mistakes might have been made in the past
– e.g., the reasons given to justify going to war with Saddam
Hussein’s Iraq – that’s behind us. It’s
“water under the bridge” or maybe “over the damn”
– take you pick.
The
latest example of trying to spin this web occurred in Vienna, Austria
on June 21 during a presidential press conference following the
U.S. – European Union summit. Asked why Europeans in recent
opinion polls held the U.S. in low regard as a force for peace,
Bush in effect discounted the poll results as a perceptual problem
for Europeans. He had made decisions he though best for the U.S.
and the world, and it was simply unfortunate that Europeans happened
not to agree with him.
Besides,
that was the past.
So
it is. But so too is October 2002 when Congress voted to surrender
to the president its constitutional duties with regard to declaring
war by “empowering” the president to use any and all
means and, at a time of his choosing, to compel Saddam Hussein to
give up the weapons of mass destruction that the world “knew”
he possessed. Bush pushed the button March 19, 2003, plunging the
U.S. into a war in Iraq that has taken, conservatively, 45,000 –
50,000 Iraqi lives and killed 2,500 U.S. service members, 226 troops
from other coalition countries, 100 journalists, more than 350 contractors,
at a cost nearing $400 billion and that will generate more than
200,000 totally disabled veterans (never able to work) for decades
to come.
For
a number of weeks, congressional Republicans and administration
spokespersons have been setting the stage with the same poisonous
“props” of rogue states, terrorism, and weapons of mass
destruction they used in 2002 against Iraq. Their apparent goal
is to convince the public that Iran, like Iraq, is a menace to its
neighbors, to the U.S., and to the world.
Some
in the administration have also asserted that the October 2002 resolution
for the use of force against Iraq was so worded that it remains
in force for any contemplated military action against Iran. That
is, the president can launch a war without getting further congressional
assent.
Which
gets us to approximately 7: 35 pm the night of June 20, 2006 in
the House of Representatives, where Representative Maurice Hinchey
(NY-22) introduced an amendment to the 2007 Defense Department Appropriations
bill. The amendment reads: “None of the funds made available
in this Act may be used to initiate military operations against
Iran except in accordance with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution
of the United States” (Congressional Record, June 20, 2006,
pg. H4300).
The
amendment should be superfluous in that it merely re-affirms the
existing constitutional division of powers between Congress and
the president in time of war. Specifically, except in the event
that the U.S. is about to be attacked or is attacked – at
which point the president can deploy the armed forces to counter
imminent or actual hostilities – the president is to request
Congress’ assent to make war, including any attack on Iran.
In commenting on his amendment, Hinchey affirms that its purpose
“is to make sure that none of the funding in this defense
appropriations bill is used to engage in any military operation
against Iran without a full vote of the Congress of the United States
in accordance with the Constitution of the United States.”
Representative
Bill Young (FL-10) spoke against the amendment by reiterating the
discredited administration claim of connections between Saddam Hussein
and al Qaeda, a claim which was used to induce the House to approve
the October 2002 resolution 296-133. Young was rebutted by Representative
Peter Defazio (OR-4) who asked the House to “stand up for”
and reclaim its constitutional powers.
The
presiding officer then put the amendment to a “vote”
and declared that the “nays” were in the majority –
at which point Hinchey demanded a roll call vote.
Now
at 7:50 pm, most members would not normally be in the House chamber.
Members would be eating dinner or be at gatherings; many of their
staffs would be gone from their offices, quite unaware that starting
after 9:00 pm, additional roll call votes would be held. Putting
these factors together with the supposition that many Members were
not aware of the exact language of Hinchey’s amendment as
they voted – i.e., mistaking the re-affirmation of Congress’
role for an attempt to limit presidential authority to act to repel
an imminent attack – the combined circumstances produce the
defeat of the amendment 158-262 with 12 members (six from each party)
not voting.
In
October 2002 the White House deceived the Congress and the public,
inducing Congress – in the administration’s interpretation
– to abandon its constitutional responsibilities in matters
of war-making.
This
“fool me once” has inflicted on the world 39 months
of bloody occupation and war in Iraq.
Now
the House has once again, in effect, abandoned its role in any future
decision about the need for and the wisdom of initiating war in
the name of the people they represent – creating a vacuum
the administration will eagerly fill.
It
seems high time that the people call to account those whose votes
against the amendment – 215 Republicans and 47 Democrats –
expose the nation to a repeat of October 2002 and its legacy. The
United States cannot afford being “fooled twice” by
Congress or the White House.
Nor
can the world.
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