War Powers Act '73 requires truthful 'circumstances'

[EVDebs]

The War Powers Act of
1973

http://www.cs.indiana.edu/statecraft/warpow.html

""Sec. 3 ...The President in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situation where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and after every such introduction shall consult regularly with the Congress until United States Armed Forces are no longer engaged in hostilities or have been removed from such situations.""

Clearly indicated by TRUTHFUL circumstances, since lying to Congress is supposedly a punishable offense, except when Republicans do it of course.

""Sec 4 ...Whenever United States Armed Forces are introduced into hostilities or into any situation described in subsection (a) of this section, the President shall, so long as such armed forces continue to be engaged in such hostilities or situation, report to the Congress periodically on the status of such hostilities or situation as well as on the scope and duration of such hostilities or situation, but in no event shall he report to the Congress less often than once every six months""

Clearly, endless war was not envisioned when 'scope and duration' are mentioned above. The War Powers Act of 1973 is embedded within the Joint Resolution authorizing the Iraq war. It is time for Congress to pull US troops out of Iraq or else explain to the people why the War Powers Act is being abused.

[Inland]

1. Vote NO CONFIDENCE in Bush

Inept Bush can't pull off the unlikely trick of avoiding an Iraq civil war. Time to cut our losses. No more money to him. No more power for him to abuse and mishandle. Time to rein him in.

[whistle]

2. Well, it appears that the loophole is in the word consult....

...""Sec. 3 ...The President in every possible instance shall CONSULT with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situation where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and after every such introduction shall CONSULT regularly with the Congress until United States Armed Forces are no longer engaged in hostilities or have been removed from such situations.""

<snip>

consult
v 1: get or ask advice from; "Consult your local broker"; "They
had to consult before arriving at a decision" with]
2: seek information from; "You should consult the dictionary";
"refer to your notes"
3: when planning or deciding something
4: have a conference in order to talk something over; "We
conferred about a plan of action" confab]
5: advise professionally; work as a consultant
6: advise professionally; "The professor consults for industry"
7: consult (archaic); "The student should take counsel with
himself"
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)


Consult \Con*sult"\, v. t.
1. To ask advice of; to seek the opinion of; to apply to for
information or instruction; to refer to; as, to consult a
physician; to consult a dictionary.

Men fergot, or feared, to consult . . .; they were
content to consult liberaries. --Whewell.

2. To have reference to, in judging or acting; to have regard
to; to consider; as, to consult one's wishes.

We are . . . to consult the necessities of life,
rather than matters of ornament and delight.
--L'Estrange.

3. To deliberate upon; to take for.

Manythings were there consulted for the future, yet
nothing was positively resolved. --Clarendon.

4. To bring about by counsel or contrivance; to devise; to
contrive.

Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting
off many people. --Hab. ii. 10.

<link> http://dict.die.net/consult/

I would say that George W Bush has taken #3. from above as the basis on which he had complied with the War Powers Act: consulted on may things for the future but nothing has been positively resolved.

[EVDebs]

3. The key is truthfulness

""clearly indicated by the circumstances""

if WMD were being disputed by CIA but stovepiped by competing agencies set up to do the stovepiping (Office of Special Plans within the DoD for instance)

you have a grounds for willful lying to Congress. Ray McGovern's group VIPS --veteran intell professionals for sanity-- can give you all the corroborating evidence ...

Which will then beg the question of Bush's alibi, contained in Bob Woodward's book ... the "Bush asked about WMD but Tenet said 'slam dunk'"

Is Woodward's old navy intelligence background still in effect with Operation Mockingbird ?

http://www.webcom.com/ctka/pr196-woodward.html and also see
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/07.03.97/scoop-9727.html

Fool us once, shame on you Woodward...

[whistle]

4. To those of us with eyes, ears and an understanding yes....

..."clearly indicated by the circumstances" suggested truthfulness, but to the president's advisers including Gonzales, Rice, Cheney, Rummy and a host of other Bushie "yes men", clearly indicated means understanding our lies. The word game is what these people play and deception through the use of words is OK by them.

[EVDebs]

5. Fabrications all. Word games then deserve to be investigated !

But the last laugh is that the War Powers Act allows the people via Congress to cut the funds for these kinds of 'adventures' not backed up by the truth.

[whistle]

6. If you have the majority of votes, which we democrats clearly...

...do not, so where do we turn to next?

[bemildred]

7. There is no question that the Iraq fandango is an impeachable offense.

It's just a matter of Congressional will.