by Russ Payne
Open Letter To the Honorable Senator from the State of New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen:
Pardon me but : I apologize If any of my letters are perceived as if I believe I have a monopoly on truth. I assure you that I am far from such perfection only possessed by the Author of Life and Liberty the Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. However, this is my honest perception of the overall attitude from correspondence received both from your office, and the same attitudes from your colleagues and predecessors throughout 50 years of bringing my concerns to Honorable members of the U.S. Congress. Form letters are like “canned beans”, nothing can penetrate the can after they are sealed. Party loyalty is a powerful deterrent to truth.
In this letter the specific issue here addressed, responds to your legislative aid, Griffin’s disagreement with my statement over the phone that our troops in Syria have been serving under UN/NATO command. Since Pearl Harbor, constitutional legislative power to “declare war” has been bequeathed to the Executive branch. Congressional shrinking from the accountability to declare War as the Constitution requires, weakly has replaced the wisdom of our Founders with the War Powers Act in 1973, and the Authorization for use of Military Force AUMF passed by Congress after 9/11. These are weak substitutions to replace 535 voting to “declare war.”
Since Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution delegates all law making power to the House and the Senate , it is obvious that zero power rests with either the Executive or Judicial branch. In spite of this mandate of sole congressional power, the perversion of constitutional war making power has become a tradition. UN Resolution 1441 is actually , permission given to the U.S. to go to war by the UN Security Council in all our Military activity in the War on Terror since 2,003, continuing a pattern of history surrendering congressional power to the UN in the post WWII era. Both congressional leaders and our presidents continue to view the UN as a superior governmental entity. (See Security Council mandate of 2003 included along with the The John Birch Society’s Top 10 Reasons to Get Us Out of the United Nations.)
The American Center of Law & Justice points to how this perversion of the power to declare war has repeatedly authorized military force since 9/11:
“..our last three presidents have all used the AUMF passed after 9/11 as broad permission to fight all terror groups and acts of terror , anywhere in the world. This is a blanket justification for the thousands of troops presently deployed to Iraq and Syria, and for other Special Operations missions in places like Somalia and Yemen.”
This endless war starting with Al-Qaeda in Iraq and later the Islamic State (ISIS) arose, necessitating even more U.S. troops to continue the fight against the new terrorist groups. Sixteen years after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. troops are still in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan and Syria. The war never ends. Those who continually criticize President Trump for doing the same as his predecessors when he assumed the same unconstitutional power, implementing the the 2003 AUMF, the hypocrites from both parties conveniently forgot that: President Obama did the same with air strikes against Libya in 2011; George W. Bush initial attacks after 9/11; Clinton, followed in Kosovo, Haiti & Iraq and George H.W. Bush did the same in Panama. Both Carter and Ford did the same in Iran and Vietnam.
However, the precedents for the above AUMF were firmly established. So let us go back further into this surrender of responsibility to “declare war.” President Truman established the precedent requesting a UN Security Council vote to send troops into Korea. Articles 29 – 51 of the UN Charter authorized the creation of NATO . Shouldn’t 53,000 Americans killed and 154,000 wounded have been a valid reason for Congress to break their silence that has allowed UN control to continue? President Truman called it a “police action” when he received permission from the UN Security Council to send troops into Korea. Now, near 70 years old without victory. Have you seen the pictures of caskets draped and dishonored with UN flags coming back from Korea?
The same trend continued in Southeast Asia based on Article 52 – 54 of UN Charter that authorized the regional alliances of NATO and SEATO. This led us into Vietnam in the 60’s, sacrificing 46,000 Americans killed and 136,000 wounded. Congress initiated the surrender of its responsibility to “declare war”, shrinking in silence. This marked the first defeat in our nations history because the UN ran the war through SEATO. Good men die. The military industrial complex wins again.
In all the above history, again I ask you to please consider the fact that one does not go to an inferior command to ask permission to go war as all of our Presidents have done since Korea. This is a recognition that our leaders since 1950 have considered the UN a superior governmental power than ours. Have you considered that “globalist” who run the Deep State were shocked their success in keeping America at war in the mideast for 18 years is threatened by President Trump withdrawing our troops from Syria? Why is their agenda never challenged that has dominantly impacted the majority of both parties over many decades, directly sacrificing the lives of hundreds-of-thousands of our finest youth and spilled the blood of many more? They who send our troops to war for profit, do not care.
This is a terrible price of congressional dereliction of duty which has purchased endless war. As I see it, many in Congress have the blood . of our finest youth on their hands. Furthermore , “fat cat” producers of the sinews of war and bankers have a vested interest in giving support to those in Congress who help them get rich bankrupting taxpayers. with war debt. The end goal of the “War on Terror” is to promote a reason for world government: UN controlled, unlike our limited government, it will be unlimited. So I contend that it is time for both major parties in Congress to break out of that sealed party controlled “can of beans”, filled with hot air and arrogance that continues to censor the truth about the UN and vote for HR 204, the American Sovereignty Restoration Act, to get us completely out of the UN.
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