By David Swanson
Remarks at http://whodecidesaboutwar.org conference.

Who actually does: the media, weapons companies, the permanent government, presidents (including simply by decreeing a "war on terror", through misspending, lying, simply acting, signing treaties), political parties, culture (the one Biden lives in, in which Israel's sovereign right to attack Iran is uncontroversial), soldiers who obey illegal orders and the culture that leads kids to that place.

Who should decide: we the people of the world, through democratically created and enforced international and national and state laws.

This is complicated by another question: what does the law say? But we may give too much importance to that. Laws violated for decades can be as hard to enforce as laws not written yet. But getting old laws enforced and new laws created has to be part of our strategy.

           Read more... 

By David Swanson

On Thursday, 22 Democratic congress members introduced a bill to deny funding to any escalation of war in Afghanistan, and 60 Democratic senators voted that Congress should not even speak to a general about that war until after the president has decided whether to escalate it. These two actions come out of very different understandings of war powers.

The particular worldview of the 22 House members, which could also be called "The United States Constitution", holds that the Congress alone has the power and the responsibility to determine whether wars are begun or ended, escalated or scaled back, and to raise and fund and oversee any military force necessary for fighting a war, while the president's role as the executor of the will of Congress is to serve as the civilian commander of the military during a time that Congress has designated and in wars that Congress has authorized.

           Read more...