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A while ago
a long-time good friend of mine gave me the book Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost
Heroes of Seal Team 10, by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson (Little,
Brown and Company, 2007). As many of you
know, this book describes the killing of three Navy Seal Team members and the
severe wounding of one more (Author Marcus Luttrell) by somewhere between 30
and 50 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in late June of 2005. And, as a preface, the book discusses the
ordeals that all Navy Seals go through in training, where a large percentage of
the aspirants “voluntarily” drop out because the demands are so onerous. So I expect that no one can read this book
without sharing my opinion that Navy Seals are among the truly best and most
dedicated fighting forces in the history of the world of combat! These gallant warriors quietly and simply
follow orders and place their lives on the line on an increasingly regular basis. And they are, and should be recognized as,
our heroes.
However, that means that our
nation’s political leaders should never call upon the talents, lives and
devotion of these heroes unless it is truly in our national interest. But in this critical task, I believe our
leaders have often failed us all. Were
our “military police actions” in places like Vietnam, Korea, Panama, Iraq and
Afghanistan really necessary to protect our National Security or National
Interests? Our Constitution provides
some strong protections in this matter.
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution expressly delegates the power
to declare War only to Congress. But
there have been no declarations of war since 1941, which began our involvement
in World War II. Instead Congress has
reneged in its duties by passing various “War Powers Acts,” and other enabling
legislation which purportedly allowed the sitting President to do whatever he
(or, hopefully soon, she) thinks best to protect our nation. But that is not the same thing. Except when immediate action is needed, the
protection for our courageous military warriors is for Congress to debate whether
there is such a threat, from whom and where, and when we will know that the threat is abated – and then
publicly to vote on it! That means
that, not only must Congress take direct responsibility for our involvement, it
also strongly increases the chances that our nation will continue to support
that involvement once the vote is taken.
However, in that regard, I firmly believe that at least our invasion of
Iraq (which was the biggest foreign policy mistake in my lifetime) would not
have passed that test. Maybe not even
Vietnam. And, although Afghanistan would
have passed it after the attack on September 11, 2001, it almost certainly
would have limited our troops to going into Afghanistan, finding Osama bin
Laden and his cohorts, annihilating them and then withdrawing from that country
– along with the warning that we would return and do so again if they remained
a threat. But Heroes like those in Seal
Team 10 should never have been put into the position they found themselves in
Afghanistan, because our nation’s political “leaders” failed their
Constitutional duty to them – and to us!
A
Lexophile: “No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be
stationery.”
By
the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray,
Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.
Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word
about the importance of Liberty!
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