Sen. James Webb has offered an amendment to the annual defense bill that would mandate that troops get a home stay as long as their last combat tour of duty before they can be shipped out again. John McCain has tried to shoot down this rather sensible idea with the claim that the Constitution does not allow Congress to do that.
"Where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that the Congress decides how long people spend on tours of duty and how long they would spend back in the United States? It's blatantly unconstitutional."
Well, I'm not a scholar, but I know how to read. In Article 2, Section 8:
The Congress shall have power to... [long list] To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.
Call me crazy, but it looks to me like Congress has the power to make just about any sort of rule or regulation it wants regarding the military. Of course, the significance of this battle goes far beyond the particular question of mandating tours of duty. This administration and its supporters effectively maintain that Congress only has an "ON/OFF" switch when it comes to making war. Once Congress declares a war, the argument goes, it's only way to rein in the executive branch is to completely cut off spending. (Of course, they know this is politically almost impossible.)
In fact, if you take the trouble to read the Constitution you can see the Congress is given pretty broad power over the military. And it makes perfect sense. Having thrown off one king, why would the Founders have wanted to create another one? Granted, the religious right beg to differ...
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6 comments:
I am beginning to get overdosed on all this GOP crap. McCain of all people should realize what is happening to out military. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it will squeak by.
The only way to defeat the Nazi's, (I mean republicans,...not really),
is to confron them on issues that are known failures with irrifutable proof. Obviously, this is easy to do because everyday, there is nothing but blatant failure after failure reported from most news outlets except Feaux noise.
I wouldn't be surprized if I get reactivated again for the upcoming war with Iran.
McCain is definitely out of tough if he believes there is a constitutional amendment regulating deployment time for service members. All it stipulates is to "...provide for the common defense" which gives Congress authority to form an Army and Navy, not the president or any wanna be's
I wouldn't expect scrub to understand the true significance for the need of a military, but McCain shouldn't assume that he can interpret the Constitution his way. A chimp has already done that, recently.
We can see where and who the republican (Nazi) campaign is making promises to, and it's definitely not us.
Can this country endure another four years of tyrannical rule before we really do have a new World War? Remember, it only took Hitler eleven years for Allied countries to bring the war to Germany.
I can't believe McCain would be against this law. He's been in the military; he should know how important it is to get adequate rest between tours of duty. Webb was in the Marines, so he knows.
If Bush vetoes this and still says he "supports the troops," well what else can you say about Dumbya?
Who Hijacked Our Country
Of course, somehow, OUR current members of Congress have allowed themselves to be rendered powerless... mainly by their own agenda of drooling over how much their power will expand once a Democrat is in office... Why bring the troops home NOW- there's an election that needs to be won and they can wait and use that as the carrot that entices the voters..
Cowards and shitheels, our sorry ass politicians in this country.
"The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war."
James Madison - Author
I would think Madison might know who the Constitution gave that power to, don't you?
McStain....what a douchebag.
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