column up by
Matthew Yglesias, theorizing that war with Iran, an idea that should make any rational being shudder, is more likely than one might think.
Then I took a train to New York to visit my father. Coming home, I greeted the building's doorman. We chatted for a while, and he mentioned that his nephew, who serves in the Navy, is about to be dispatched to the Persian Gulf.
He's not alone.
Rather a lot of naval assets are being readied for deployment to the Gulf these days, and rumors are flying that more may be on the way. Nobody knows exactly why this is happening. No official explanation is forthcoming from the White House or the Pentagon. But it is happening, just as the United States is constructing a large airbase in Tallil, Iraq, also with nobody talking about it.
One of my strongest memories of the pre-Iraq war period was the rising terror I felt as I read about military assets being dispatched to the Gulf, a dread certainty that the deployment was too big an investment for a bluff. I get the same feeling now. Not to mention that the concept of bluffing seems to be an alien one for this administration, whose operating motto is "Carry a big stick, and
use it.
Perhaps worst of all, it's not clear that there's much liberals can do to prevent all this from happening. By most accounts, the White House is contemplating giving the military orders to launch a surprise attack on Iran. That, in turn, implies that the administration believes there's no need to seek congressional authorization for strikes before launching them, which would make the outcome of the midterm elections beside the point.
The best we can do, it seems, is to at least raise this issue and try to bring pressure to bear on the administration before anything happens. The War Powers Act states that "the constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by a attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."
Iran, rather clearly, fits none of these cases, which would render an unauthorized strike illegal. But waiting for war and then filing a lawsuit afterward isn't going to do. Democrats should press the administration on this point. Many of its members have opined from time to time that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional. Does the Bush administration intend to follow it as a matter of policy? So far, Iran has played only a tiny role -- if any role at all -- in the midterm campaigns, but at the moment this may be the most important question we face as a nation.
Maybe we all need to start yelling. Loudly.
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