4 ms·

Starting illegal wars and engaging in extreme corruption, for starters.

• terminalshort 7mo ago
  The war isn't illegal. The president has that power. I don't like it either, but since the Korean War this is simply a statement of fact.
  • vrganj 7mo ago
    The president of the US does not have the power to start a war without getting it approved by the UN security council. You're arguing internal implementation details, but the legality is not determined by your courts.
    • terminalshort 7mo ago
      I care less about what the UN says is legal than I do the local traffic cop
      • vrganj 7mo ago
        International law is not about what you care about. It just is. If you break it by starting a war, then it is an illegal war, ad definitionem.
  • _bohm 7mo ago
    The war is certainly illegal. Our systems are just so atrophied at this point that we treat congressional approval as a formality. This is a choice we make over and over again that we need to stop making.
    • AnimalMuppet 7mo ago
      Not even a formality. A formality means that he would get it from Congress, without Congress judging the war on merit. We don't even have that.
      • _bohm 7mo ago
        Speaking not just of this administration/war but also of past ones
  • jacquesm 7mo ago
    > The war isn't illegal. You're going to have to specify a framework if you want to make statements about legality.
    • terminalshort 7mo ago
      US law, which is the only relevant law to discuss the actions of the president of the US.
      • bdangubic 7mo ago
        Under which "law" is President allowed legally to start a War - citation needed :)
        • terminalshort 7mo ago
          It's been the established president since the Korean War when the US began ignoring the constitutional provision that gave congress the power to declare war. Additional examples are the Vietnam War, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq I & II, the Libyan regime change, and the current Iran conflict, and there are plenty more. The written law still states that the president does not have this power, but the actual unwritten law has been that he can. And that is the only law that matters.
          • bdangubic 7mo ago
            > US began ignoring the constitutional provision First, not US but Presidency and second, breaking Constitution is not very legal last time I checked but I could be wrong... /s
            • terminalshort 7mo ago
              Yes, the US and not just the presidency. If it was just the presidency then he would have been impeached by congress for usurping their constitutional authority.
  • Detrytus 7mo ago
    US constitution says that starting a war must be authorized by Congress, president has no authority to do it on his own. The problem is: over time the US grew so powerful, that the definition of "war" became blurry. "No, we are not at war, our soldiers are just dropping bombs on Iran for fun and profit". EDIT: Another problem, of course, is that current member of Congress have no balls to stand up to Trump and reclaim their constitutional powers.
    • terminalshort 7mo ago
      Congress made its mistake a long time ago. Power is very difficult to reclaim once it has been relinquished. And it didn't even take a Caesar crossing the Rubicon in our case.
  • FpUser 7mo ago
    >"The war isn't illegal. The president has that power" Well you can say the same about Putin then. All nice and dandy
    • terminalshort 7mo ago
      Of course I can. He even uses the same trick of not calling it a "war"