Trump threatens yet another new war.  Congress?

So Trump has committed an act of war in Syria and Afghanistan, and now he’s saber-rattling around Korea, just as China warns us that this is a terrible idea.

That’s what, three acts of war in three different nations in roughly the same week?  Gotta be a new record of some kind.

Trump is happy to talk about how good he is.  He’s been talking himself up for a while now.  Of course, this is a guy who can’t talk about a cake without lying.

For me, he’s fulfilled another campaign promise:

We’re going to win. We’re going to win so much. We’re going to win at trade, we’re going to win at the border. We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning, you’re going to come to me and go ‘Please, please, we can’t win anymore.
— Candidate Donald Trump, May 26, 2016

If this mud pit is his idea of ‘winning’, then yeah, I’m already tired of it.

But can President Trump declare war on another nation?  Does he have the authority to commit the nation?  What if it’s a first strike?  What if we bomb a country that hasn’t attacked us?  Is that OK?

If the question is whether the American President has the legal authority to declare war or commit acts of war, the answer is easy:  no.  If the act isn’t covered by a Congressional Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), the American President cannot commit the nation to war on his own authority.  It’s in the Constitution.

But if the question is “Could Trump get the military to bomb North Korea?” well, that answer is much harder.  The Republicans who are supposed to be in charge of war seem comfortable enough sitting back and not doing their part.  I doubt Trump even knows he’s supposed to ask permission.  I’m guessing it’s most likely Republicans will continue sitting firmly on their hands, and depend on denying their culpability during the next election cycle.  (‘Winning the next election’ seems to be the only principle they really follow.)

During all this, Republicans spit out literal tons of words to justify every sneeze or twitch, but they only lie slightly less obviously than Trump.  I could point out how each new blather point this week contradicts what they swore to on their mother’s grave last week, but what’s the point?  I think getting lied to is important, but all evidence says I’m in the minority on that.  They’ll say whatever they have to say to be re-elected.

There are few Congressional duties as important as defending the United States from threats outside, and inside.  North Korea isn’t threatening the US, they’re threatening South Korea, and (mostly in theory) Japan.  Somehow, though, they’ve managed to leave President Cheese Doodle feeling unmanly, so he’s half an inch away from unilaterally bombing someone to help his daily poll numbers, and pulling us into a potential world war.

What fun.

When this is over, if we’re still here, remember who was supposed to be the grown-up in the room.