Epic Fail

I've come to doubt all that I once held true
--Simon and Garfunkel

Obama’s blend of chill opportunism,
draped in high-minded verbiage,
is beginning to rile some liberals –
the same way Jimmy Carter’s similar mix did thirty years ago
--The Auld Triangle Goes Jingle Jangle,
Alexander Cockburn

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Fearing the military mindset, the Founding Fathers set up a cumbersome command relationship to preclude rampant military games. But ultimately they wanted the people to decide if they wanted war or not, as it was a decision to be made by their proxies -- Senators and Congressmen.

The Founders did not forsee a civilian authority driving the war machine, as we have today. Instead, the civilian C-in-C was envisioned as a brake that would be applied to slow or halt a military march to madness. The power of Congress to declare war (or not) was another set of brakes which, taken together, should stop any ill-advised military action. The will of The People should trump that of the C-in-C, though that is not how it has played out.

Andrew Jackson used the military in defiance of the Supreme Court to order the Army to evacuate the Cherokee in the Trail of Tears. President Polk wanted a war with Mexico; same for Wilson with Germany in World War I. Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted war with Germany and Japan.

With Truman, we saw a C-in-C commit to major combat action in Korea without a declaration of war. Same with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Same as George HW Bush, Reagan, George W Bush and now, riding on their coattails, Barack Obama. Except now, there is no war or even country to fight. Now, we fight wars against groups of people.

What do we as a people do when our leaders fail in their constitutional duties? Politics has become more important than life-and-death issues such as war-making. The Congress and the Courts fail to counterbalance an aggressive, war-hungry Executive, and the electorate accepts this travesty as democracy.

It is a self-evident truth that democracy is a non-functional concept when the President can unilaterally commit U.S. troops to major combat actions without a whimper of dissent from the Congress or the People.