The Patriot Post® · Obama 'Wartime Commander-in-Chief'

By Albert Maslar ·
https://patriotpost.us/commentary/16869-obama-wartime-commander-in-chief-2013-02-20

President Obama defined himself as a “Wartime Commander-In-Chief.” Pray tell, is the US at war as there are no congressional formal declarations of war on record? So is the US fighting war illegally? And if so, what are the remedies including impeachment? And does the oversight go deeper than the Presidency?

Further examination into the subject reveals that continuing US involvement in foreign and Middle East wars in particular, guarantee the wars to be as inevitable as they are unending. President Dwight Eisenhower (Ike) warned against the dangers of the “Military Industrial Complex” that is up in arms (pun intended) over cuts in military expenditures mandated by sequestration.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is famous for his wartime Fireside radio chats quote: “I hate war, Eleanor hates war, and our dog Fala hates war,” attributed to FDR in 1941. All Presidents following FDR and WWII have waged or continued undeclared wars, along with 50 years of the “Cold War” with Russia, and not merely against sovereign nations like North Korea, Viet Nam, Yugoslavia, Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, and extending to Pakistan, close to the border with India.

Consider that today’s pre-emptive wars are against vague ideologies of extremist terrorist groups with hideouts and operations in 57 Islamic countries. America is hung up on clichés but fails to really consider, “What goes around comes around.”

Those cheering for US drone attacks against terrorists all around the world ignore the fact that to the terrorists in safe havens, America is the enemy and if it is okay for the US to use drone attacks, then what should inhibit them from attacking the US directly?…Again as on 9/11/2001. President Obama decided to use drones willy-nilly and should there be retribution, he who has claimed ownership of the program will have to answer for its consequences.

President George W. Bush and his oxymoronic Iraq War to “prevent war” shows the idiocy of allowing any Commander-In-Chief to wage discretionary war no matter what adjectives are used to marginalize its impact. For the US, war declared or not, implies the need to mobilize while the armed forces must be provided with sufficient human and monetary resources necessary for victory.

Volunteers for the military are fine and noble as far as it goes, but a true mobilization involves all able-bodied to be available for the draft that must ignore circumstances like work, education, public position or the accident of birth. The physically deficient must serve on essential support services not requiring military-type physical strength and endurance.

All must serve or be available for service, no questions asked, no deferrals for the privileged because those are the ones that brought the country to war and they should not be excused from service for any reason. This proviso may put the fear of the devil into the minds of war hawks that are free and easy with someone else’s progeny and money.

Controversial Chuck Hagel has been nominated for the job of Secretary of Defense, and is PERFECT for the job as his incompetence is a perfect match for the current President, his hand-picked agenda-driven Czars and Cabinet members, not to mention his outgoing frequent flyer mile Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who knows nothing about Benghazi. Why should anyone be surprised? Incompetency loves company it can relate to.

If the US is at true war, let the Congress so say by declaring war, not against an ideology that is impossible to war against, but against a sovereign country. “United we stand; Divided we fall.” If nothing else will unite the disparate USA, perhaps the reality of war might.