Unfortunately for us, Congress is refusing to grapple with the current crisis in Iraq and Syria.
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Kevin Drum highlighted Republican House member Jack Kingston committing a classic Kinsley gaffe yesterday—defined as happening when a politician accidentally tells the truth—when he explained why there will be no Congressional vote to authorize military strikes again ISIS targets in Syria or Iraq. As Congressman Kingston put it:
A lot of people would like to stay on the sideline and say, ‘Just bomb the place and tell us about it later.’ It’s an election year. A lot of Democrats don’t know how it would play in their party, and Republicans don’t want to change anything. We like the path we’re on now. We can denounce it if it goes bad, and praise it if it goes well and ask what took him so long.
As I see it, this is pretty good evidence that at least some Republicans in Congress, maybe even most, are more interested in criticizing the President than actually getting foreign policy.
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Congress has unfortunately been abdicating its responsibility when it comes to matters of war and peace for decades now; after all, the last time we declared war was World War II.
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And this is what critics like Conor Friedersdorf are missing when they criticize President Obama for not going to Congress to get authorization for the use of military force abroad. Yes, under the Constitution only Congress has the power to declare war, but that rule doesn’t mean a whole lot if nobody in Congress is willing to enforce it. Congress has unfortunately been abdicating its responsibility when it comes to matters of war and peace for decades now; after all, the last time we declared war was World War II, and even though the War Powers Act was supposed to constrain the White House, it has in fact never actually been invoked.
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Personally I think that if we are going to launch another Iraq War, or a new Syrian military adventure, it makes sense for Congress to have to vote on an authorization for the use of military force. If people think more war is a good idea, they should vote yes. If they don’t, they can vote no. But either way they should have to be on record for how they think the US should deal with ISIS. Unfortunately, we don’t live in such a world. Instead they really aren’t going to do anything and will just try to roll out new talking points to bash Obama if things go wrong and say he should have dropped more bombs earlier if things go well.
Which isn’t going to lead to any new insights when it comes to foreign policy.
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