Congress Asleep as Biden Makes War on Yemen By Ron Paul!
(2024-01-16 at 22:26:32 )

Congress Asleep as Biden Makes War on Yemen By Ron Paul!

Late last week President Biden started a new United States war on the tiny country of Yemen. United States warships and fighter jets launched more than a hundred missiles at the country in a massive escalation that the Administration bizarrely claimed would "de-escalate" tensions in the Red Sea.

Taking the United States to war without a Congressional declaration of war is a grave crime against the Constitution.

Not only did President Biden show no interest in coming to Congress for a war declaration, he did not even ask for authorization. Together with Washington,D.C.s reliable junior partner in war, the United Kingdom, Biden attacked Yemen. It seems the US Administration consulted more with the UK government than with the US Congress on the attacks.

But that is not really the worst part.

Far from taking action against this illegal move by an out-of-control president, Congress as a body could not even see fit to criticize the Administration. On the contrary, Congressional leadership in both bodies actually applauded President Biden for brazenly violating United States law!

House Speaker Mike Johnson not only praised the illegal move, he urged the President to go further and confront Iran. He said, "This action by United States and British forces is long overdue, and we must hope these operations indicate a true shift in the Biden Administrations approach to Iran and its proxies that are engaging in such evil and wreaking such havoc."

To their credit, several Members of Bidens own party joined with a handful of Republican colleagues to denounce a United States president taking the country to war without the authority to do so.

California Rep. Ro Khanna was one of the first Democrats to criticize Bidens warmaking, stating, "The Presidents strikes in Yemen are unconstitutional. For over a month, he consulted an international coalition to plan them, but never came to Congress to seek authorization as required by Article I of the United States Constitution."

The Framers of the Constitution gave war-making power to Congress because they understood that leaving such power in the hands of one person was a recipe for disaster. The role of the president is to make the case for a war declaration. Congress deliberates and either authorizes or refuses the proposed action.

Washington,D.C. has obviously not learned the lessons of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and all the other failed United States interventions over the past 20 years.

Why do we keep losing wars??

Because we do not go into wars according to the United States Constitution. This war will be no different.

The Houthis in Yemen withstood years of attacks from the Saudis using the latest United States weaponry and came out on top.

To this point they have not been targeting United States vessels in the Red Sea, but only ships heading to or from Israeli ports. They are doing so in opposition to Israels destruction of Gaza. In short, it was never our war. But now, with this attack, Biden has made it our war.

So we are left with the strange and sad spectacle of Congress asleep at the wheel as a Defense Secretary launches military strikes from his hospital bed in the service of a president clearly not in his prime.

All this in pursuit of a policy that makes no sense and is leading us closer to a major war in the Middle East that will only harm, not serve, the United States national interest.

Copyright 2020 by "Ron Paul Institue". Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.