Lawless President + Lawless Congress != Legal Use of Force in Syria
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/05-1
In March 1967, Johnson's secretary of state, Dean Rusk, center foreground, faced Congressional questions about Vietnam. (
Lawless President + Lawless Congress ≠ Legal Use of Force in Syria
by Howard Friel
Published on Thursday, September 5, 2013 by Common Dreams
On August 7, 1964, the United States House of Representatives voted 4160, and the U.S. Senate voted 882, to support Presidents Johnsons decision to bomb targets inside North Vietnam in response to what the president said were North Vietnamese attacks on the U.S.S. Maddox and U.S.S. Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin.
~SNIP~
Similarly, in October 2002, the House voted 296133 and the Senate 7723 to authorize President George W. Bush to resort to military force against Iraq as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.
~SNIP~
These votes authorizing force were illegal because (a) the United States was not subjected to an armed attack on its territorial borders by Vietnam or Iraq; neither Vietnam nor Iraq had any capability to engage in such an attack, and (b) the UN Security Council did not authorize the United States to resort to force in Vietnam or Iraq.
On these two counts, then, the Congress voted in violation of the cardinal rule of the UN CharterArticle 2(4)which prohibits the threat or use of force by states in the conduct of their international relations.