Biden promised a return to 'normal.' His Syrian airstrikes show 'normal' can also be unconstitutional and immoral
- Biden promised a return to “normalcy,” and few things are more “normal” than presidents waging war without congressional approval.
- Bombing Syria is just another in a long line of presidential extralegal military strikes.
- Partisans of both parties still contribute to America’s perpetual state of undeclared forever war.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
Donald Trump in April 2017 ordered a military strike on Syria, without congressional authorization.
The noted foreign policy pundit Fareed Zakaria quipped at the time that that unilateral act of war represented the moment “Donald Trump became President of the United States.”
It’s a stupid formulation, as well as a national shame that it represents a certain conventional wisdom. But it is illuminating that our political chattering classes consider extralegal warfare to be the mark of a “serious” chief executive.
And by this warped standard, Thursday is the day Joe Biden became president, after he ordered airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria in retaliation for recent attacks on US troops just across the border in Iraq.
Biden has now officially joined the bipartisan American tradition of presidents waging war on a whim.
Partisanship allows presidents to make war
Presidents have long enjoyed the expansive authority to briefly wage war, as Congress hasn’t officially declared war since World War II. It has, however, approved several Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF).
The AUMF approved by Congress days after the 9/11 terror attacks has been so broadly interpreted that four presidents have used it to conduct military operations in 19 countries over the two decades since Al-Qaeda’s attack on American soil.
Predictably, partisans who opposed Trump’s military strikes — like Biden press secretary Jen Psaki who in 2017 questioned the “legal authority” of Trump’s strikes on Syria — are now on board with the bombing of sovereign countries.
Likewise, Donald Trump Jr. — who never opposed his father’s unauthorized bombings — slammed Biden for “dropping bombs” in the Middle East.
It’s this craven bipartisan hypocrisy that helps keep AUMF repeal and/or reauthorization perpetually on Congress’ backburner.
There is some hope that Congress will one day reassert its constitutionally-required powers, as several members in both parties quickly condemned Biden’s use of unauthorized military force.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said such unilateral attacks are “not constitutional absent extraordinary circumstances,” adding that the American people should be made aware of Biden’s “rationale.”
Progressive Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna of California tweeted: “Our foreign policy needs to be rooted in diplomacy & the rule of law, not retaliatory air strikes without Congressional authorization,” and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky condemned “attacking a sovereign nation without authority.”
But it’s the tribally-partisan enablers of presidential war-making who contribute to America’s perpetual state of undeclared forever war.
Only when influential members of Congress stand resolute against unauthorized military actions — particularly when the sitting president belongs to their party — will the US find itself less permanently-tangled in other countries’ crises.
Biden promised a return to “normalcy” if elected. It’s worth remembering that sometimes “normal” is unconstitutional and immoral.
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