Pat Buchanan raises just such a question. Here Pat notes that Syria is a nation that has neither attacked nor threatened us. Pat continues that in the absence of an attack on the United States, Congress alone has the authority to decide whether or not the United States goes to war.
The next 72 hours will be decisive in the career of the speaker of the House. The alternatives he faces are these:
John Boehner can, after “consultation,” give his blessing to Barack Obama’s decision to launch a war on Syria, a nation that has neither attacked nor threatened us.
Or Boehner can instruct Obama that, under our Constitution, in the absence of an attack on the United States, Congress alone has the authority to decide whether the United States goes to war.
As speaker, he can call the House back on Monday to debate, and decide, whether to authorize the war Obama is about to start. In the absence of a Congressional vote for war, Boehner should remind the president that U.S. cruise missile strikes on Syria, killing soldiers and civilians alike, would be th
e unconstitutional and impeachable acts of a rogue president.
