Oh My God: Obama Wants AUMF From Congress, But Won't Say What He Wants In It

President Obama is a coward of impossible dimensions.

He is attempting to fight a war without alerting the public to the fact that it is a war, because he is ideologically committed to claiming that war is always a mistake, and yet for political reasons he must be seen as pretending to fight IS.

He knows he needs -- get this -- an actual resolution from Congress to fight this war. But, because of the political optics, he does not wish to be seen asking for one, nor engaging in the process of securing one.

So the Administration refuses to tell the Senate what should be in an AUMF, or what shouldn't be there. He wants them to just guess, because he is such a clownish, cartoonishly cowardly malefactor that he can't be seen to have actually sent over a memo.

This is the worst man -- not just the worst president, but the worst man -- I have ever seen in a leadership position.

Senators to Kerry: Tell Us What You Want to Fight ISIS

The administration criticizes Senate proposals to authorize force, but won't offer a plan of its own.

BY ALEX BROWN

Senators from both parties pressed Secretary of State John Kerry Tuesday on the White House's reticence to put forth a proposal for the fight against the Islamic State.

And while Kerry defended the administration's refusal to outline the confines of the conflict, he also took issue with the boundaries imposed by congressional proposals. If you didn't want Congress micromanaging the war, the senators responded, you should have told us what you wanted in the first place.

Kerry testified at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee--which he used to chair--telling members that an Authorization for Use of Military Force should include no restrictions against the use of ground troops and should not limit operations to Iraq and Syria, as the plan proposed by committee Chairman Robert Menendez does. Though the White House does not intend to violate either of those confines, the restrictions would "preemptively bind the hands of the commander in chief" if unforeseen circumstances arose, Kerry said.

"Had the administration sent us an AUMF, maybe we would have been better versed as to what the administration seeks or does not seek," Menendez responded.

Kerry and Sen. John McCain got into a tiff over historical precedent, with McCain arguing that previous AUMFs have always moved with the impetus of the executive branch, and his longtime Senate colleague disputing that characterization. "It's got to be led by the commander in chief," McCain said. "That's how the system works." Kerry said some previous such actions have in fact originated in Congress.

...

Others were more forceful. After hearing Kerry's testimony on which congressional proposals the White House would support, Sen. Marco Rubio lamented that it had taken a hearing to garner that information. "You don't have anyone over there who could type that up real quick?" he asked.

Thus it is that a president who supposedly favors a de-escalation of war-making is seeking a "blank check" from Congress to fight whoever he likes, whenever he likes, however he might like.

Weakness in a national policy does not yield peace; weakness simply invites war unexpectedly.

Similarly, weakness in a president -- weakness, corruption, deception, softness -- does not actually result in peace, as some might expect. Weakness must always hide itself -- weakness is too cowardly to go openly into the street -- and it hides itself behind a lying mask of belligerency.

Strong nations are strong enough to dare to show an openness for peace, and strong men as well.

Craven men like Obama bring only discord, strife, and more war.

posted by Ace at 01:53 PM

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