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*What* Sworn Oath to Support and Defend the Constitution?

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By Robert C. Byrd

New York Times | Op-Ed

WASHINGTON -- A sudden appetite for war with Iraq seems to have consumed the

Bush administration and Congress. The debate that began in the Senate last week

is centered not on the fundamental and monumental questions of whether and why

the United States should go to war with Iraq, but rather on the mechanics of

how best to wordsmith the president's use-of-force resolution in order to give

him virtually unchecked authority to commit the nation's military to an

unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation.

How have we gotten to this low point in the history of Congress? Are we too

feeble to resist the demands of a president who is determined to bend the

collective will of Congress to his will -- a president who is changing the

conventional understanding of the term "self-defense"? And why are we allowing

the executive to rush our decision-making right before an election? Congress,

under pressure from the executive branch, should not hand away its

Constitutional powers. We should not hamstring future Congresses by casting

such a shortsighted vote. We owe our country a due deliberation.

I have listened closely to the president. I have questioned the members of his

war cabinet. I have searched for that single piece of evidence that would

convince me that the president must have in his hands, before the month is out,

open-ended Congressional authorization to deliver an unprovoked attack on Iraq.

I remain unconvinced. The president's case for an unprovoked attack is

circumstantial at best. Saddam Hussein is a threat, but the threat is not so

great that we must be stampeded to provide such authority to this president

just weeks before an election.

Why are we being hounded into action on a resolution that turns over to

President Bush the Congress's Constitutional power to declare war? This

resolution would authorize the president to use the military forces of this

nation wherever, whenever and however he determines, and for as long as he

determines, if he can somehow make a connection to Iraq. It is a blank check

for the president to take whatever action he feels "is necessary and

appropriate in order to defend the national security of the United States

against the continuing threat posed by Iraq." This broad resolution

underwrites, promotes and endorses the unprecedented Bush doctrine of

preventive war and pre-emptive strikes -- detailed in a recent publication,

"National Security Strategy of the United States" -- against any nation that

the president, and the president alone, determines to be a threat.

We are at the gravest of moments. Members of Congress must not simply walk away

from their Constitutional responsibilities. We are the directly elected

representatives of the American people, and the American people expect us to

carry out our duty, not simply hand it off to this or any other president. To

do so would be to fail the people we represent and to fall woefully short of

our sworn oath to support and defend the Constitution.

We may not always be able to avoid war, particularly if it is thrust upon us,

but Congress must not attempt to give away the authority to determine when war

is to be declared. We must not allow any president to unleash the dogs of war

at his own discretion and for an unlimited period of time.

Yet that is what we are being asked to do. The judgment of history will not be

kind to us if we take this step.

Members of Congress should take time out and go home to listen to their

constituents. We must not yield to this absurd pressure to act now, 27 days

before an election that will determine the entire membership of the House of

Representatives and that of a third of the Senate. Congress should take the

time to hear from the American people, to answer their remaining questions and

to put the frenzy of ballot-box politics behind us before we vote. We should

hear them well, because while it is Congress that casts the vote, it is the

American people who will pay for a war with the lives of their sons and

daughters.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed

without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the

included information for research and educational purposes.)

Source: <http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/10.12B.byrd.rush.htm>

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