(John Yoo takes another stab at twisting the Constitution inside-out and beyond: A president can pull the trigger
"Article 1, Section 8: Powers of Congres ... To declare War...."
Seems pretty simple to me, but then I'm not a professor of law at UC Berkeley like Prof John Yoo. I read this bit of the Constitution of the United States of America, and I think: "It's up to Congress to decide when my country goes to war." Prof Yoo, with his much broader experience in law -- and his personal law degree, which certainly demonstrates his superior grasp of the law in all its subtlety -- reads these three words as meaning that Congress has the right to pay for military activities in which the president chooses to engage.
Yoo writes: "Neither presidents nor Congress have ever acted under the belief that the Constitution requires a declaration of war before the U.S. can engage in military hostilities abroad." This must be some complex legal construction where the words "declare" and "war" have no connection whatsoever to "declaration of war." I think I must just be thick; perhaps what the Constitution lacks is a second phrase: "...and if Congress fails to actual declare a war, well golly no one else can do anything that looks, quacks and waddles and like a war." And as Prof Yoo is glad to point out, Congress has done badly in declaring wars, anyway -- in 1798 and 1812. As opposed to the brilliant success of Vietnam and the decisive victory in Korea.
But the President, as the Constitution makes quite clear, is the Commander-in-Chief. Being C-i-C, the President quite clearly has carte blanche to send his troops and navies off to do battle as he pleases. Ok, that pesky Section 8 does give Congress the power to govern and regulate the armed forces, but it shouldn't take an actual degree in law, and high ranking government experience writing justifications for torture, to see that telling the army what to do and how to do has nothing to do with governance or regulation -- no matter how a dictionary might define those words.
"Further, the Constitution specifies no step-by-step process to govern war-making, yet it is specific every other time it imposes shared power on the executive and legislative branches." Prof Yoo must surely be right on this. The Constitution is chock-a-block with detailed directions on how to run the government. The Founders left nothing, and I mean nothing, to the guess work of those who would follow them. They made damn sure we would know exactly how to run our country. They were so meticulous, we're only up to 27 amendments! Oh, and that silly little war thing. But that one was a no-brainer. Since all they said was that Congress would declare wars and decide how to run the military, that clearly means the President (remember: he's the Commander-in-Chief?) can send the troops off to do his bidding as he pleases.
It's right there, people!
What John Yoo hopes most fervently is that people will neither bother to read the actual Constitution nor to use their common sense. (Common sense? Wasn't that the tract that really got revolutionary fervor going? Obviously not a trait they cherished.) The Constitution is every bit as clear as Yoo tries to pretend it is not. And I don't give a traitor monkey's ass that past presidents and Congresses have looked the other way. Doesn't make it right. Past presidents and Congresses have done all manner of reprehensible and illegal things, from Jackson's treatment of the Cherokee to FDR locking up Japenese-Americans to Bush declaring war on Iraq.
These liars are trying to steal our Constitution, our government and our liberties. John Yoo may have a high status job, but that doesn't mean what he says is true. It's not. But if he can divert enough attention from the Constitution, he'll end up winning.