Rep. DeFazio Reminds Bush of Constitution

MyDD has the full contents of a letter Rep. DeFazio has sent to Bush concerning the need for Congressional approval before Bush launches any war against Iran where no immediate threat is involved; here are the first two paragraphs:

We are concerned by the growing number of stories that your Administration is planning for military action against Iran. We are writing to remind you that you are constitutionally bound to seek congressional authorization before launching any preventive military strikes against Iran.

As you know, Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power "to declare war," to lay and collect taxes to "provide for the common defense" and general welfare of the United States, to "raise and support armies," to "provide and maintain a navy," to "make rules for the regulation for the land and naval forces," to "provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions," to "provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia," and to "make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution...all...powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States." Congress is also given exclusive power over the purse. The Constitution says, "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law."

A concern many people have is that Bush will secretly try to get Iran to launch an attack; already there are reports of possible military activities by our special forces. Bush might also get legalistic by arguing that Iran is already involved in Iraq. Of course, Iran has offered to sit down and have talks with the US on both Iraq and uranium enrichment; Bush, who claims to be in favor of diplomacy has not seriously taken Iran up on its offer. Nor has Bush seriously sat down with the Russians and Chinese to discuss these issues; Russia and China are probably crucial to some kind of settlement or cooling period.