Syria: U.S. Executive and Legislative powers avoiding "advise and consent" on War powers?

Jean Purcell
@OpinariPeople

I've been tweeting/twittering like crazy this a.m. over an (apparently) upcoming U.S. strike against selected targets in Syria, due to WMD/chemicals.

Americans need to think about our role in this. What is our role? Isn't it to expect the president to consult with congress?  That's my expectation, because I fear that strikes as a show of force will spark regional conflagration. We will, if not carefully considering what to do, provide ammunition, literally, for Syria's Assad and others to do more than many U.S. leaders are now imagining.  

Where, then, is/are the congress? On holiday? Unable to find a flight back to the capital city to get together with the president's men and women? Already back, but relatively quiet on this issue? Unaware of precedence for calling the president's men and/or women to the Hill to explain themselves and the president? 

What about the congressional foreign relations committees and their roles, to consult with the president, to use their powers to call hearings when military action clouds have formed already? (See a recent Washington Post report.) 

There is no cloud more deadly than a War Cloud full of weapons of destruction and ready to strike with or without a full deliberation.  

What about the region where Syria sits? What about the possibility of a spreading war? What about precipitating a reaction of horrors? There could be deadly retaliation in ways not yet believed likely or possible by western nations. 

The fear that chemical weapons use will spread is a legitimate fear. It is pushing a strong retaliation against Assad's regime, believed to be the source of the gassing of innocents recently in Syria. However...many parties need to be involved in the U.S. before we would impose outside, warring actions. But aggression is being planned, as announced or leaked. An American or coalition military display of anger and/or compassion can worsen the situation and never make it better. Aggressive action would be advertised in Syria, the region, and around the world as western aggression by unaffected interlopers gone wild. It would likely encourage more unwanted Arab action, i.e., terrorist groups outside Syria looking to infiltrate even further.     

Given the growing refugee populations in parts of Palestine, Egypt, and Iraq, one hopes the region and agencies are gearing up remarkably and that borders remain open. 

In my humble opinion, congress should be taking real action to find details of the president's plans and to make it clear that they are advising, as one, either by committees or full chambers. They need to formally communicate with American citizens. They should do more than talking and advising via news programs. At a minimum, congress and the president should be meeting face to face, which used to be the norm. They should be doing this now.

U.S. senate foreign relations committee-looking a bit hawkish on Syria  

U.S. house foreign affairs committee link here-speaking but not asking for meetings or hearings

"Solving Syria"

Opinion

FallofSaigon.org-Mass Exodus

Organizations and nations are discussing what might be a solution to end the civil war in Syria. From this American's perspective--and for reasons of humanitarian, geopolitical, and national resources, history, and/or religious interests--it is clear that influential Americans have different views. Those views usually include a disinclination to stay out of other regions' wars, a desire to see conflict, and its attendant suffering, end. 

     
Most Americans are war-weary and war-disillusioned. The solutions expected from going to war, since Korea, have not sufficed. I am not one to rush to a "war solution" view, and I think citizens and voters are weary of U. S. involvement in wars of recent years. As national puzzles grow, if there is a Syria Solution it is not appearing yet on thought-boards, charts, or known lists of acceptable options. 

    "Blood and treasure" is a phrase depicting the human costs of war. Groups like Wounded Warriors remind us of the severity of costs borne by combat survivors. They present a clear picture of "blood and treasure" through the faces, wounds visible and invisible, and families of fighters. We know their wounds could be ours or our families'...and some are.  

     In the 20th century, brain-trust names, presidential advisers, and Pentagon giants like Robert McNamara thought their analyses were correct. In his later memoirs, Robert McNamara wrote that he had long before realized that the Vietnam War, for which he had been a leading strategist, was "wrong, terribly wrong." 

     To leave dictators in place or to take them out has been an unanswered existential question of U. S. foreign policy. Where is the U. S. Congress regarding matters of advice and consultation? The second part of the war powers resolution, for example, reads that the President is required "to consult with Congress before introducing U.S. armed forces into hostilities or situations where hostilities are imminent, and to continue such consultations as long as U.S. armed forces remain in such situations (50 USC Sec. 1542)

     We cannot make other nations' civil wars or dictatorships our military business unless we are prepared with clear, imperative reasons able to past tests learned in U. S. recent  war history. The photo on this page, a mother and wounded child fleeing an overrun Saigon in 1975 when the U. S. was driven from Saigon, is a harsh, yet necessary, reminder that when we try out of fear or any reason not soberly considered, we may do more harm than good in the end. 
     The U. S. was attacked by four civilian planes turned into tools of terror on 9/11/01. Defending against another such attack and any attacks, smaller or larger, is our present war, at home and through intelligence abroad. That war continues, a different kind of combat. I care about Syria and the whole middle east, and they are subjects of prayer. Yet, I do not think we can solve these problems militarily.

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