Congress has a Sense
The 1992 Somalia incursion provided temporary support for a UN humanitarian mission. The United States has never declared war on Somalia and Somalia has never declared war on us. Nevertheless we soon found ourselves taking sides in a ghastly civil war. President Clinton withdrew the troops after the black hawk down debacle of 1993.
A year later, Clinton sent 2,000 soldiers into Haiti, once again in support of the UN. In response to this action, Congress passed a sense of Congress resolution indicating the president should have sought Congressional approval before deploying US forces to Haiti. It did not provoke a Constitutional crisis.
The formerly communist Yugoslavia began a decade long political meltdown in 1990. Carnage ensued as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo all broke away from what is now Serbia and Montenegro. The Air Force bombed Serbia for 3 months, this time as part of a NATO engagement. Many in Congress disagreed with Mr. Clinton’s decision to get involved, but our soldiers remain in the former Yugoslav republics to this day.
In the popular 1997 movie “Wag the Dog”, a fictional president used overseas military entanglements to distract the country from a personal scandal. Power corrupts politicians and presidents have the power. The country always rallies round the commander in chief in times of war.
Somalia, Bill Clinton, Haiti, Commander in Chief
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