Unauthorized Syrian War?: Obama sends 400 troops to Turkey, 3,000 back to Iraq
President
Barack Obama shares a laugh with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during
the NATO summit on May 20, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois.
Credits:
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
On Friday, CNN reported that President Barack Obama’s United States Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “signed and order” while en route to Turkey “to send two Patriot missile batteries and 400 U.S. troops to operate them.”
The surface-to-air interceptors will help in "dealing with threats that come out of Syria," Panetta said after landing at Incirlik Air Base, a U.S. Air Force installation about 80 miles from Syria's border.
In October, US News reported that Panetta had already disclosed that over 100 American troops had been sent near the Jordanian border with Syria.
In an unusual show of breaking party ranks, Ohio
Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich criticized Obama for deploying American
troops to Jordan "without notifying Congress."
Putting U.S. troops on that border draws the U.S. much closer to war in Syria, which is a nightmare already and can be more of a nightmare for our country.
The Washington Post reported Thursday
that the observation by western intelligence agencies of Syrian units
making advanced preparations -- mixing precursors for chemical weapons
and loading trucks with ready-to-use bombs and shells -- prompted
President Barack Obama to warn Syria last week against using chemical
weapons on the Syrian people.
However, two Western officials briefed on the intelligence findings –
who spoke on the condition of anonymity -- said the Syrian government
forces had stopped preparations late last week and that there was no
evidence that activated chemical weapons were loaded onto aircraft or
deployed to the battlefront.Earlier this week, Panetta admitted the threat had eased, though it had not been eliminated.
"I can see in a moment how it happens,” Kucinich
told U.S. News in October. “We're a few dozen miles from the Syrian
border and all of a sudden we are within the reach of physical danger.
All it takes is a single incident.”
"We can't spend a lot of time worrying about
whether that pisses off Syria," Panetta said Friday after signing the
order to deploy Patriot missiles and 400 U.S. troops to Turkey.
The Obama administration and the CIA declined to answer questions about the episode.
In the meantime, Iran’s Press TV reported Monday
that “over 3,000 US troops have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait”
in “multiple stages” and that “almost 17,000 more are set to secretly
return to Iraq via the same route for missions pertaining to the recent
developments in Syria and northern Iraq.”
According to Press TV’s correspondent, the US
troops are mostly stationed at Balad military garrison in Salahuddin
province and al-Asad air base in al-Anbar province.
Obama did not seek congressional approval for this either. But this was hardly the first, or even the second time.
Obama also bypassed Congress when he sent drones
into Libya last year. While Republicans argued the move was in violation
of the War Powers Resolution. Obama argued that his actions did not
qualify as “hostilities.”
When the Libya campaign had gone on for nearly
three months, Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner joined
several Republicans and Democrats to express astonishment Obama’s "no
hostilities" claim.
"Yet we've got drone attacks under way.
We're spending $10 million a day, part of an effort to drop bombs on
Gadhafi's compound," USA Today quoted Boehner telling reporters at a
news conference. "It doesn't pass the straight face test in my view that
we're not in the midst of hostilities."
“Conceptually,”
the United States Library of Congress explains on its website, “the War
Powers Resolution can be broken down into several distinct parts.”The first part states the policy behind the law, namely to "insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities," and that the President's powers as Commander in Chief are exercised only pursuant to a declaration of war, specific statutory authorization from Congress, or a national emergency created by an attack upon the United States (50 USC Sec. 1541).
The second part requires the President to consult with Congress before introducing U.S. armed forces into hostilities or situations where hostilities are imminent, and to continue such consultations as long as U.S. armed forces remain in such situations (50 USC Sec. 1542).
The third part sets forth reporting requirements that the President must comply with any time he introduces U.S. armed forces into existing or imminent hostilities (50 USC Sec. 1543); section 1543(a)(1) is particularly significant because it can trigger a 60 day time limit on the use of U.S. forces under section 1544(b).
First -- that Panetta first announced the
introduction of “U.S. armed forces into existing or imminent
hostilities” on Oct. 10 – Obama has already violated the 60-day War
Powers Resolution “time limit” that requires him to “consult” with and
to receive “statutory authorization from Congress.”
Second – while horrific -- the events in Syria do
not qualify as “a national emergency created by an attack upon the
United States.”
Ironically, it was the Democrat Kucinich who noted
that the Obama administration’s October announcement -- of the
deployment of “U.S. armed forces into existing or imminent hostilities”
against Syria -- came exactly ten years after the House of
Representatives gave President George W. Bush the authority to invade
Iraq, which was in response to the 9-11 attack during which 3,000
Americans were killed on U.S. soil.
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