"The Congress shall have power to … declare war." - United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8 In America, 2011, history is given yet another example of a nation in which one person, in this case called “the president," can launch all of his subjects into war...
High Costs May Not Be the Worst Aspects of the Attack on Libya
As if getting enmeshed in a third simultaneous war—with costs soaring in a time of economic peril, yawning budget deficits, and national debt—when no vital national interest was at stake wasn’t bad enough, that is not the worst of it. As in George W. Bush’s invasion...
New START Is Worthy, but Let’s Not Violate the Constitution to Save It
Since the Cold War ended, arms control treaties don't get much attention – unless they get into trouble. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) appears to fall into that category. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), designated as the Republican point man for the...
Marked Imam Tests Lawn-Chair Constitutionalists
"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." - Thomas Paine The Constitution is being tested in the most extreme way imaginable: does the...
The Trouble With Unconstitutional Wars
Listen to Ron Paul deliver these remarks here. Our foreign policy was in the spotlight last week, which is exactly where it should be. Almost two years ago many voters elected someone they thought would lead us to a more peaceful, rational co-existence with other...
Death by Remote
As the Barack Obama administration continues to roll out justifications for its policy of targeting U.S. citizens and others thought to be attacking U.S. troops, legal and national security experts are pondering a central question: What if there's a mistake and the...
Return Our Weekend Warriors
If George W. Bush – notorious for skipping his Texas Air National Guard drills during the Vietnam War – were in the Guard today, he'd be up in the air without a propeller. That's because today's National Guard has become virtually indistinguishable from the nation's...
CPAC Sends Founding Fathers Spinning
Everywhere you looked at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington this year, there was Lady Liberty, an eagle soaring, a patriot with fife and drum and a tri-cornered hat. Freedom – everyone and everything declared – was under assault....
US: Guantanamo Prisoners Not ‘Persons’
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal Monday to review a lower court's dismissal of a case brought by four British former Guantanamo prisoners against former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the detainees' lawyers charged Tuesday that the country's highest...
Civilian Trials for 9/11 Suspects Aren’t Enough
The Obama administration's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and four alleged co-conspirators in civilian court is a laudable return to the rule of law from the Bush administration's kangaroo...