Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409230006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cal Thomas
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The War Powers Resolution requires congressional approval whenever U.S. troops spend more than 68 days (90 days in certain circumstances) engaging in hostilities, deploying into areas where hostilities are imminent or serving in a foreign nation ``while equipped for combat.''
Four years ago, I wrote that President Bush was wrong to wage war in the Persian Gulf without authorization from Congress. He subsequently got it, but was opposed by many of those who clamored for (or remained disturbingly quiet about) an invasion of Haiti.
In 1990, a group of 45 House Democrats asked a federal judge to block any order from President Bush for a U.S. attack on Iraqi forces without congressional approval. Using the War Powers Resolution as its legal argument, the lawsuit said, ``If the president takes it upon himself ... to initiate such a war without the unequivocal consent of Congress, the victim of Iraqi aggression will be, not just Kuwait, but the Constitution of the United States.''
Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Calif., who along with his fellow Black Caucus members was eager to have someone else's sons and daughters march into Haiti, said then that President Bush had consulted foreign leaders more than Congress. (The same could be said of President Clinton, who sought and got U.N. approval for a Haiti misadventure.) ``We're saying,'' said Dellums four years ago, ``the president of the United States cannot on his own make that kind of determination. There are millions of people in this country who have serious questions about us going to war.''
According to polls, more had serious reservations about an invasion of Haiti than with Desert Storm.
Among those agreeing that Bush could not go to war without congressional authorization were then-Congressman, now White House Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta, Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., (who heads the Congressional Black Caucus) and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., another Black Caucus member.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in 1990 made public a letter signed by Harvard's Laurence Tribe, stating the ``firm conviction that the Constitution requires the president to obtain prior express congressional authorization before he may order United States armed forces to make war in the Persian Gulf.''
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., said that without congressional support, ``whatever policy the president chooses - through wisdom or folly - cannot possibly succeed.''
Citing ``lessons of Vietnam,'' then-Sen. Al Gore said that while he supported the deployment of troops in the Gulf, ``the Founders were wise in granting the power to declare war to the Congress of the United States.'' And Gore added, ``National consensus is a strategic asset. The participation of the legislative branch of government in the use of the power to pursue a war is an essential factor in building and maintaining a national consensus.''
There was a national consensus on Haiti: Polls showed three-quarters of the people didn't want us to invade. Nonetheless, we were heading knee-deep into the Big Muddy when a last-minute diplomatic maneuver changed a U.S. invasion into a U.S. intervention.
Lastly, but by no means leastly, Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell stated flatly four years ago, ``It is Congress, and Congress alone, that has the power to declare war.''
Those Democrats were right then, and some Democrats were saying these things last week, along with nearly all Republicans and most major newspaper editorials. But President Clinton ignored sober and sane advice to show that, despite his own war record, he can order others to die in a foreign adventure in which American interests are not involved.
Maybe he should learn some ``lessons of Vietnam'' from his vice president.
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB