Superlative
Senior Member
- Mar 13, 2007
- 1,382
- 109
- 48
Disclaimer - This is liberally biased, since it speaks against the president.
.................No, it is not the Nuclear Option, (remember the Filibuster?), although it may prevent the current president from starting a pre-emptive nuclear holocaust. The Fifth Option would be a Formal Amendment that would completely strip any war making and war declaring powers from Article II, Section Two of the U.S. Constitution. In other words, the Executive Branch and president would never again be Commander In Chief or have any powers in initiating and maintaining a war.
Surprisingly the authors of the U.S. Constitution, along with history, have been on the side of the Fifth Option.
Many of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention that met from 1787-1789 were extremely concerned that the establishment of an Executive Branch led by one individual, the president, would not only have the potential to become Monarchial but have too much power over peace and war. (1)
Since the Articles of Confederation, which consisted of only a Legislative Branch, guided the American Republic in its early years, some members argued that an Executive Branch would be dangerous and it should only exist to carry out the will of the Legislative and solely be accountable to Congress. (2) Still, other Delegates viewed the presidency as only having power to execute laws passed by Congress. (3)
In the earlier draft of the U.S. Constitution, the members supported the idea that all war declaring and war making powers, along with the raising and funding of armies, should solely belong to the Legislative Branch. In the end, however, several delegates argued that the Executive should be given very limited war making powers. Only when war was declared, fought and funded by Congress, would the president act as Commander in Chief.
Furthermore, the Amendments of the Rhode Island Convention warned that standing armies during times of peace were dangerous to liberty and ought not to be kept up except in cases of necessity; and as at all times the military should be under strict subordination to the civilian power-therefore no standing army, or regular troops, shall be raised or kept up in time of peace. (4) Placing the army and all war making powers strictly under control of the Legislative Branch, which represents the people, would have solved this crisis.
Today the Founding Fathers would be shocked to witness how the Executive Branch has expanded and usurped the war making powers of Congress. (And also how the small Republic has turned into an empire.) Many presidents have declared and signed into law emergency powers that have suspended basic human rights for American citizens. Others have fabricated stories in order to initiate foreign conflicts, and then argue for any means necessary in fighting such wars.
Other presidents have hidden behind executive privilege and secretly spied on citizens, assassinated foreign leaders and overthrown democratically elected governments, as in the cases of Dwight Eisenhower and Guatemala, John F. Kennedy and Vietnam, Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger and Cambodia, Laos and Chile, Ronald Reagan and Nicaragua and Grenada, George Bush Sr. and Panama, and George W. Bush and Haiti and Iraq................
http://cgi.wn.com/?action=display&article=55747140&template=worldnews/paidnews.txt&index=recent
.................No, it is not the Nuclear Option, (remember the Filibuster?), although it may prevent the current president from starting a pre-emptive nuclear holocaust. The Fifth Option would be a Formal Amendment that would completely strip any war making and war declaring powers from Article II, Section Two of the U.S. Constitution. In other words, the Executive Branch and president would never again be Commander In Chief or have any powers in initiating and maintaining a war.
Surprisingly the authors of the U.S. Constitution, along with history, have been on the side of the Fifth Option.
Many of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention that met from 1787-1789 were extremely concerned that the establishment of an Executive Branch led by one individual, the president, would not only have the potential to become Monarchial but have too much power over peace and war. (1)
Since the Articles of Confederation, which consisted of only a Legislative Branch, guided the American Republic in its early years, some members argued that an Executive Branch would be dangerous and it should only exist to carry out the will of the Legislative and solely be accountable to Congress. (2) Still, other Delegates viewed the presidency as only having power to execute laws passed by Congress. (3)
In the earlier draft of the U.S. Constitution, the members supported the idea that all war declaring and war making powers, along with the raising and funding of armies, should solely belong to the Legislative Branch. In the end, however, several delegates argued that the Executive should be given very limited war making powers. Only when war was declared, fought and funded by Congress, would the president act as Commander in Chief.
Furthermore, the Amendments of the Rhode Island Convention warned that standing armies during times of peace were dangerous to liberty and ought not to be kept up except in cases of necessity; and as at all times the military should be under strict subordination to the civilian power-therefore no standing army, or regular troops, shall be raised or kept up in time of peace. (4) Placing the army and all war making powers strictly under control of the Legislative Branch, which represents the people, would have solved this crisis.
Today the Founding Fathers would be shocked to witness how the Executive Branch has expanded and usurped the war making powers of Congress. (And also how the small Republic has turned into an empire.) Many presidents have declared and signed into law emergency powers that have suspended basic human rights for American citizens. Others have fabricated stories in order to initiate foreign conflicts, and then argue for any means necessary in fighting such wars.
Other presidents have hidden behind executive privilege and secretly spied on citizens, assassinated foreign leaders and overthrown democratically elected governments, as in the cases of Dwight Eisenhower and Guatemala, John F. Kennedy and Vietnam, Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger and Cambodia, Laos and Chile, Ronald Reagan and Nicaragua and Grenada, George Bush Sr. and Panama, and George W. Bush and Haiti and Iraq................
http://cgi.wn.com/?action=display&article=55747140&template=worldnews/paidnews.txt&index=recent
