US Senate Demands Syria War Plan!
- Senate Demands Syria War Plan!
by http://larouchepac.com/
Last night the Senate voted 92-6 for an amendment that requires the Department of Defense to supply to the Congress a report on what military activities would be required to deny the government of Bashar al Assad the use of airpower against opposition forces in Syria. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the only member of the Senate to speak against the amendment, said that, in short, it requires the President to submit to Congress a plan for a no-fly zone. First, he pointed out, there’s no certainty that “the Syrian rebels will be freedom-loving, tolerant, constitution-toting believers in a republican form of government or whether they will institute an Islamic republic that will have no tolerance for Christians and no tolerance for people of any other faith.” Second, he argued, it’s not a good idea for the Congress to get involved in the making of plans for military operations, as that is properly in the purview of the executive branch.
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The amendment contains a provision which states that nothing in it will be construed as an authorization for the use of force against Syria, but that is little more than a fig leaf. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chief sponsor of the amendment, assured the Senate that if military action were to be taken, for example, against Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, Congress would have to be involved; therefore, all the amendment does is provide information to the defense committees of the House and Senate. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) made clear his preference while covering his ass. “To me — and I speak only personally, and I do so with respect — getting involved in this on behalf of the opposition in Syria has been now for 18 months as close to a no-brainer as America ever has the opportunity to get involved in in foreign policy,” he said. As for a no-fly zone, he noted that there are many options for imposing it, including using Patriot missile batteries in Turkey and Jordan to blast Syrian planes out of the air, and attacking Syrian air bases with missiles fired from ships offshore. But Syria is not Lieberman’s only target. If Assad goes down, he said, “Iran and its radical regime suffers a body blow.”
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Whether anybody in the Senate wants to say so or not, the possible actions that the amendment proposes to be studied would be acts of war, and President Obama has already demonstrated a propensity for engaging in acts of war without the Constitutionally- and statutorily-required Congressional actions.
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