Wednesday, September 4, 2013

AUMF Moving Forward


For John, BLUFThe AUMF is far from assured.  Nothing to see here; just move along.



AUMF is Authorization for the Use of Military Force and is from the Congress to the President.

Senate Panel pushes forward resolution allowing US Military to attack Syria as a way of saying no more chemical weapons.  The vote was 10-7 and bipartisan.  From the International Herald Tribune we have this:

The Senate’s newest member, Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, voted present.
I thought that was a Senator Obama kind of thing.

Here is the summary:

The approved resolution would limit strikes against the Syrian government to 60 days, with the possibility of 30 more days upon consultation with Congress, and it would specifically block the use of ground troops.  But to retain the support of Mr. McCain, considered crucial to the authorization’s final passage, the committee toughened some of the language.
If there is no threat of ground troops there is no serious threat, unless one is willing to obliterate the cultural features.  Think Kosovo.

Regards  —  Cliff

4 comments:

  1. Oh, Senator. Where art thou?

    “Before casting such a monumental vote, I need to review all of the relevant classified materials relating to this matter before I make a decision as important as authorizing the use of military force,” he said in a statement after the vote.
    http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/320337-markey-explains-present-vote-on-syria-resolution

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  2. Sometimes the time is up.
    You think and she walks away and marries someone else.
    The applicant takes a job elsewhere.
    All those cars behind you are sounding their horns.

    I hope he finds the clue bag before the full Senate vote.

    Regards  —  Cliff

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  3. "If there is no threat of ground troops there is no serious threat"

    I don't know about that. If I threatened you with just the air campaign of Desert Storm, I think you'd have to take that pretty seriously. If you were a regime soldier, I think you'd have to give serious thought to going AWOL. When the ground troops in Desert Storm met little resistance, it was because of the air campaign that preceded it, showing that it was effective at putting them into a position they thought was hopeless.


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  4. Chris

    Thanks for that vote of confidence in airpower.  In Iraq we were willing to kill folks and break things, lots of things.

    Regards  —  Cliff

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Please be forthright, but please consider that this is not a barracks.