Sorry, Did We Forget To Declare War?
It turns out we (and the British) waged a secret war against Iraq long before the official war was ever declared. Yoohoo, Congress? Perhaps you should be reading The London Times; specifically this article by Michael Smith:
THE American general who commanded allied air forces during the Iraq war appears to have admitted in a briefing to American and British officers that coalition aircraft waged a secret air war against Iraq from the middle of 2002, nine months before the invasion began.Addressing a briefing on lessons learnt from the Iraq war Lieutenant-General Michael Moseley said that in 2002 and early 2003 allied aircraft flew 21,736 sorties, dropping more than 600 bombs on 391 “carefully selected targets” before the war officially started.
The nine months of allied raids “laid the foundations” for the allied victory, Moseley said. They ensured that allied forces did not have to start the war with a protracted bombardment of Iraqi positions.
If those raids exceeded the need to maintain security in the no-fly zones of southern and northern Iraq, they would leave President George W Bush and Tony Blair vulnerable to allegations that they had acted illegally.
More here, at The Raw Story.
> ... would leave President George W Bush and
> Tony Blair vulnerable to allegations that they
> had acted illegally.
As Will usta say, "Heaven forfend."
Fer Chrissake, the no-fly zones were on the front page of the LA Times twice a month for TEN YEARS. Anyone with a pulse, a rusty synapse and seven inches of bowel knew that we were killing people over there THROUGHOUT the Clinton administration.
Again: How many wars in the past hundred years HAVE been "declared" to anyone's satisfaction?
Crid at June 28, 2005 6:20 AM
Well, folks, it's time to read up on the War Powers Act.
Congress has been shirking its plain duty for some time. If not for that cowardly measure, intended to let a President swing in the wind without Constitutional protections, Congress would have to initiate hostilities on foreign soil.
While it might be more convenient to hate a President - because you can remember his name - Congress is the real reason our troops are in more than a hundred countries.
Radwaste at June 28, 2005 7:58 AM
Here's a link for the no-fly zone:
http://www.historyguy.com/no-fly_zone_war.html
A lot of those bombs that were dropped in response to clear provocation by Iraq, tantamount to an act of war:
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9902/19/iraq.01/
I know you really want Bush impeached, but this ain't gonna cut it. Maybe if you could find a girl with a blue, stained dress somewhere. . .
nash at June 28, 2005 10:53 AM
Better watch the speech tonite
Mad Hungarian at June 28, 2005 11:34 AM
P.S. In the Art of War, Sun-tzu raves about winning wars without fighting. According to him, this is the most elegant.
Mad Hungarian at June 29, 2005 5:22 AM
Winning the war without fighting: that's what Saddam did for 10 years under the oil-for-food program.
nash at June 29, 2005 9:58 AM
Nash comes through like a Brother!
Crid at June 29, 2005 4:34 PM
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