“When President Barack Obama unilaterally ordered the bombing of Libya in 2011, I argued that Obama was acting ‘in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Act until he gets Congress’s approval.’ The exact same argument now applies to President Donald Trump’s unilateral bombing attack on Iran. Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution places the power ‘to declare War’ exclusively in the hands of Congress. The president of the United States, whose own limited powers are separately enumerated in Article II, possesses no lawful authority to launch a war on his own. … James Madison observed that ‘the constitution supposes, what the History of all [Governments] demonstrates, that the [executive] is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the [Legislature].'” (06/24/25)
Source: Fox News Forum
by US Senator Bernie Sanders (pretend “independent” – VT)
“American involvement in the war against Iran remains unclear. On Saturday, President Donald Trump launched an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities. On Sunday, he talked about the possible need for regime change there. On Monday, he thanked Iran for their restrained military response, and shortly afterward announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. What will tomorrow bring? I have no idea. But I do know that the United States must not get involved in a war with Iran. We do not need another unnecessary and costly war. We have had enough of them. In 1964, the U.S. Congress voted, with little debate, for a Gulf of Tonkin resolution giving President Johnson the authority to escalate American military involvement in Vietnam. As a result, the U.S. expanded its presence in that country and was dragged fully into Vietnam’s civil war.” (06/24/25)
“The question that nobody wants to talk about – not even Congressional opponents of Trump’s potential war against Iran – is why the Iranians can’t have a nuclear weapon if they want one. This is not discussed because Americans have been taught to believe that there are good and evil nations and regimes, and that Iran is an evil, ‘rogue’ state that only wants nukes so that the Ayatollahs can use them to destroy Israel. … The actual reason Iran wants nuclear weapons (or at least the right to threaten to develop them) is so that their country – an industrialized, middle-income nation of more than 90 million people – can hold its own with Israel and avoid becoming another dependent subject of the American Empire. It is not as if possessing nukes were a privilege reserved to a few peaceful do-gooder nations.” (06/24/25)
“On June 21, the United States committed an act of war, attacking a sovereign nation that had neither attacked nor threatened it without the approval of the Security Council. Iran’s nuclear facilities were severely damaged. But that is not all that was damaged. The aggression has potentially left international law in ruins.” (06/24/25)
“In much of life, but especially in foreign policy, a three-word question is crucial: But then what? That is approximately what Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto said when Japan’s government asked if he could stealthily take a fleet across the northern Pacific and deal a devastating blow to the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. … Having studied at Harvard and served as a military attaché in Washington, he knew the United States and knew that his attack would produce an industrial superpower unified by rage. Iran has no comparable capacity for retribution. There are, however, reasons to worry about Iranian threats to the 40,000 U.S. military personnel in the region, Iran’s capacity for nihilistic attacks on global energy and commerce, and the tentacles of Iran’s international terrorism apparatus. It will be a major surprise if there is only a negligible surprise from Iran.” (06/24/25)
“The recent U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities have fundamentally altered the geopolitical landscape of the ongoing Iran-Israel-U.S. confrontation. While the situation has been deteriorating since the escalation of Israeli hostilities in Gaza and subsequent Iranian retaliations, Washington’s decision to bomb key Iranian sites (including the Fordow underground uranium enrichment facility, Natanz, and Isfahan) marks a game-changing shift. The strikes on Iran (justified under familiar pretexts of ‘non-proliferation,’ ‘peace’ and ‘defense’) serve as a warning to emerging multipolar blocs, particularly BRICS and China-led alliances, that deviation from Western geopolitical orthodoxy will not be tolerated, even when conducted within the boundaries of international law.” (06/24/25)
“For too long, the history of race relations in the United States has been misrepresented as a battle between ‘progressive’ liberals, supposedly partisans of policies that benefited racial minorities, and ‘conservatives’ trying to block their advancement. Jonathan Bean’s Race and Liberty, of which the first edition appeared in 2009, constitutes an invaluable corrective to that portrayal. A partisan of the ‘classical’ liberal tradition — the liberalism of the American Founders, who believed in the Lockean doctrine of limited government, aimed at securing the equal rights of all individuals — Bean (history professor at Southern Illinois University) provides a collection of over 75 documents, accompanied by helpful, brief editorial commentary, which correct the record. The readings cover not only relations between ‘whites’ and racial minorities, but also immigration policy.” (06/24/25)
“Some pro-Trumpers embrace the President on the idea that ‘a businessman can apply common business sense to out-of-control government.’ Though government could use more such sense, not less, overall I’m not very impressed with this argument because in key ways government is nothing like business. Government lacks the salient standard of profit and loss. Therefore, people trying to apply decent standards are at a disadvantage.” (06/24/25)
“For all of his talk about fighting socialism, President Donald Trump seems to have an affinity for socialist policies. Trump is going after Marxism in universities. He wants to rip out the roots in the military. He’s even against Marxists entering the country. But when he’s the Marxist, it’s just ‘The Art of the Deal.’ Socialism is generally considered to be a Marxist utopia where the people, meaning the government, control the means of production. I don’t know a more fitting description for America’s new ownership interest, known as a ‘Golden share,’ in U.S. Steel, as a condition to allow its merger with the Japanese company Nippon Steel to move forward.” (06/23/25)
“Even Americans who loathe President Donald Trump should be capable of seeing that the United States and the world are safer without a nuclear-capable Iran. But Trump derangement is blinding them. On Saturday, the president and the US military executed a ‘spectacularly successful’ precision bombing of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, with no American casualties and minimal impact on Iran’s people. Yet now Trump is being bombarded with attacks here at home. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Trump’s strike ‘grossly unconstitutional,’ a claim repeated by Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has sparred with Trump on other issues. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a chorus of other Democrats are calling for Trump’s impeachment. New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidates — for whom Trump-hatred is a litmus test — are piling on. … These claims are crazy.” [editor’s note: Yes, it’s crazy to expect Trump to follow the law, or McCaughey to admit he doesn’t – TLK] (06/23/25)
