Who Needs a Legislature?
In the 1990’s, presidents used multinational organizations to help justify foreign invasions. The first Persian Gulf War was approved by the United Nations Security Council. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization runs the Kosovo operation.
After our troops drove the Iraqi army out of Kuwait, President Bush stated the reason for not then toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime: “We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well… Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different–and perhaps barren–outcome.”
During the last weeks of his presidency, George Bush Sr. sent 25,000 troops into Somalia. Unfortunately, the Constitution does not account for this type of passive offensive. In war, soldiers are mobilized to defeat an opposing force, to take and control real estate. Actually, the US military has always excelled at this. But when we ask our soldiers to establish political institutions or police a foreign country for years on end, we lose our way. Diplomacy is for politicians.
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