Some progressives need to put down the flowers and smoke some bad guys now and then. Conservatives need to cram their sabers up their own asses and die.
I’ll take soft progressives over the other any day of the week, but demanding Congressional approval is fucking absurd right now. It’ll take 8 months and be filled with unrelated laws, financial packages for Ohio and Texas, and pro-oil deregulation.
Not to mention, having foreseen exactly this problem previous representatives passed the War Powers Act. Biden absolutely has the authority to blow shit up. He can do it without any reason or other authority for 60 days. Then he has 30 days to remove American troops from that area. (Or return force levels to where they were)
So you want more executive power? … almost like that the president can do things without Congress?
… boom dictatorship.
There’s a line, idk what it should be but it should be.
No, but have the power to make quick action against small threats via airstrike and missile strikes shouldn’t need the end endless hem and haw from a bunch of clowns.
The last war declared by Congress was
Korea in the early 1950sin WW2. Dark Brandon doesn’t have time for this foolishness. Yemen was warned again and again. They’ve now entered the find out stage.edit: brain worms
Yemen has been getting bombed by Saudi Arabia with the full backing of the US for almost a decade now, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises still ongoing. You’re right about the brain worms, but it’s not because you goofed up the last war declared by congress. Dumb Brandon is not cool for continuing the status quo with the military industrial complex.
Ww2, Korea was never declared.
Corrected. Thanks.
Does a formal declaration of war matter?
The Wikipedia entry for the Korean War mentions Congress allocating money for the war effort within the month after US got involved. That certainly appears to be Congressional approval.
And the US response was after a UN resolution calling for it, giving some legitimacy
Yemen was warned not to block the ports of a genocidial neighbour. But they just wouldn’t stop. And now the US has to bomb them. So sad.
Oh fuck off with this tired propaganda line. After Korea we did Vietnam as a “police action” and then Congress filled in the semantic loop hole with the War Powers Act. Which governs how we go to war now. If we need to fight an actual war then Congress has to pass an AUMF, Authorization to Use Military Force.
Every action since Vietnam has either fallen into the 60 day period presidents are allowed for emergencies or an AUMF. Congress has absolutely been exercising it’s war powers. This stupid fucking lie gets trotted out by the far left and the far right for different uses and I’m done hearing it.
So are they going to repeal the War Powers Act? Are we going back to needing a Declaration of War to deal with every pissant pirate?
Not the pirates of pissants? Have they try singing to distract them?
Houthi and the Blowfish
It would be a good start, yes.
No, it wouldn’t. A straight repeal of the War Powers Act also opens us up to another Vietnam. And amending it such that any use of force requires congressional approval would put us in an international straight jacket. From defending our shipping interests to protecting allies. In the event of China deciding it would rather just take existing islands to make it’s “nine dashed line” a reality, we’d be arguing about immigration instead of deploying the Navy. And we would instantly lose the trade access we have to the entirety of the SEA region.
We tried isolationism. It didn’t work.
No one is saying let the planet go to hell
Yes, yes they are. Maybe not you, but there are billionaires saying exactly that.
Asking Congress is a surefire way to get nothing done.
Maybe that’s a good default stance when the topic is war.
Limited war is always a tricky topic. Where do you draw the line between a full on war and making the seas safe for trade,
Luckily, the aftermath of the Vietnam War gave us an answer. The War Powers Act. Which gives the president authority to use the military in situations exactly like this. If he tries to turn it into a big thing, then it has to go in front of Congress.
Humanitarian aid and addressing the reason they are taking up arms.
The Houthis took up arms because of Iranian backing and Yemeni local politics. The Western countries aren’t solving that any time soon. And they’re already receiving HA.
Making the seas safe for trade = shutting down trade sanctions on a genocide
That’s not what they’re doing. They’re firing at any ship they believe even has a Western financial stake in it. No matter where it’s going or what it’s carrying. It could be taking Italian tractors to Somalia to encourage local farming as part of an aid program and they would fire at it.
Isn’t fighting piracy like legal for everyone? Like a private citizen or any country’s military could go out there and hunt pirates. I remember that from when the somali pirates got yeeted.
The AUMF probably also actually has given him the right to do this.
No AUMF required to bonk pirates. It’s the national version of self defense.
None of these representatives objected to us sinking boats involved in piracy operations. They’re objecting to attacks on land against a group that is pretty close to a government. There’s some point at which on-land operations turn from being defending against piracy to regime change. Which may be warranted, but should be decided by Congress.
I’m pretty sure you can attack the pirates when they get back on land too.
Not if they have one foot on home base. No backsies!
I think that’s a baseball reference I’m too european to get
Ha I see why you might think so but I was referring to “neighborhood rules” for kids’ games like Tag. We’d often designate a light pole or a car as “home base” and you couldn’t be tagged as “It” if you were touching it.
I hope you play tag in Europe or else this didn’t make sense either lol
Ah instead a game I’m either too old to remember or too woman to have played. It does sound vaguely familiar though.
Then Congress needs to add that to the War Powers Act.
There are no laws in international waters.
You underestimate the reach of US law. Also, the “Law of the Sea” clearly applies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea
There are laws that govern Antarctica, Outer Space, the Moon, etc. International waters are just less regulated, but there are definitely laws.
Oh yeah the infighting is getting bad. Get ready for an absolute terrible election season for the Democrats.
I’m seeing “leftists” using the same vocabulary as Q-anon style crazy morons. The vitriol is being spat like no matter what their isn’t a right answer and it’s not made better by the fact that we as a country are still basically pushing for all the worse aspects of ourselves because it’s what feels normal.
People are all gonna join in to help burn it down and think they will be the kings of the ashes but largest organized group is gonna be the real victor and it’s for sure as hell not the self hating left.
Maybe I will be wrong and the vote against method will work again but if it does we need to make some hard turns to get things actually getting better and get some companionship happening or it will just be a bloodbath between factions that wanted their scoop of the ashes.
It’s because these “leftists” are right wing trolls. Full stop. This “Genocide Joe” shit in particular is so fucking transparently a trump-style attack it’s laughable. Leftist spaces on the internet are so far up their own reactionary assholes they are now actively protecting far right propagandists and calling it left unity.
Yeah I actually got banned from a “leftist” sub (r/latestagecapitalism on Reddit) because I called out a literal right wing propaganda post from a literal maga mouthpiece that was a lie.
And the mod responded with:
We don’t work with the Demo-kkk-rats
Like a literal fascist response because it makes their dick hard to feel like they are standing up to the bad guys while supporting the end of democracy. Neat. Not a leftist.
It is interesting/sad just how hard Biden is sticking to the old ways of doing things even though most people seem to have moved on from that way of thinking.
*“Most people” applies only to lemmygrad, lemmy.ml and some college campuses.
Seriously - people dramatically overestimate how much has changed.
The legislative branch has been busted for so long that they literally ceded power to go to war to the executive for the good of the nation. Y’all can feel free to undo that at any time once you’re not completely broken.
Jesus fucking Christ, Congress is peak dysfunction.
Republicans: “Hold my MAGA hat!”
Are they suggesting to allow US Navy ships to be attacked without retaliation? It’s been going on for like 2 months now. Are they willing to have that on their voting record?
Did they send a strongly worded letter, that they later retracted, again…?
Biden when Americans need help:
I’m just a president I can’t do anything without Congress!
Biden when far right ethnostate wants to do another genocide in the Middel East:
Fuck congress, I’m a president! Vote trump if you don’t like it.
Motherfucker is 80 years old and has no idea what he’s doing. We deserve better than our only two options
Oh, is that what this is about? We’re attacking the Houthis in defense of Israel?
Don’t be fucking daft, or disingenuous, which is worse because it displays complete moral cowardice.
We’re attacking the Houthis because they’re indiscriminately attacking civilian ships in one of the most valuable shipping lanes in the fucking world.
So it’s about money, as it always is. Going to war is always about money… I’m so tired of the U.S. being at war. We’ve been at war all but maybe 12 years of the U.S.'s existence. Don’t believe me? It’s surprising but true.
Unless your ideal is an autarkic Festung Amerika, shipping lanes kind of have to be able to operate without the civilian sailors who go through worrying about getting fucking killed.
Globalization isn’t a requirement. In fact, it’s completely destroying our planet and its habitability. But yeah, let’s worry about the shipping lanes.
Yeah, alright, you have fun with the idea that people exchanging goods without murdering each other is what’s destroying the planet. Terribly evil, globalization. Or that the collapse of shipping lanes wouldn’t result in incredible human suffering.
It’s called CO2 emissions, I’m sure you’re aware of it. The suffering climate change is going to cause in the coming decades will dwarf anything we’ve ever seen, unless we see a sharp decrease in emissions to zero very very soon, ideally 20 years ago. But, the next best time to do it is right now.
The core issue of CO2 emissions isn’t “People now communicate, travel to, and trade with each other across the globe” but “Massive use of fossil fuels where they are not necessary due to corporate lobbying”
Cargo ships and planes combined emit ~5% of our CO2 output. The major offenders are elsewhere.
Iran is a whole ass country, the Houthis are a rebel faction, for lack of a better term. I think this whole situation is kinda different… Matter of opinion I guess…
Houthis are the de facto government of Yemen which is important because the US is claiming the right to self defence which is only available between states.under international law. That’s why for example Israel’s argument of self defence is nonsense because Gaza is not a separate country.
So Israel is going to colonize Gaza, and the US is going to take Yemen?
What could possibly go wrong?
Need that sweet sweet oil money.
Russia’s got oil
