Timothy Birdnow

So now President Trump has bombed Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure and Democrats (and some Republicans) are screaming bloody murder. AOC, always good for an insane quote, called for Trump's impeachment over it. Bernie Sanders called it "blatantly unconstitutional". But is it?

It's odd because I don't remember a comparable outcry when, say, Bill Clinton bombed an aspirin factory in the Sudan, killing the night janitor. He did that on the eve of his impeachment, which is what Republicans criticized, not his authority to take these steps.

Barack Obama bombed people using drones and in fact attacked foreign entities with drones no fewer than 563 times WITHOUT ASKING CONGRESS FOR PERMISSION. He even droned an American citizen. But his authority to do this was never questioned. Nobody questioned his authority to launch airstrikes on Libya either.

The current law grants legal authority to the President to take these steps. The Authorization of the Use of Military Force (AUMF), a 2001 law, authorizes the President to take such actions. The War Powers Act of 1973 says the President has the authority at home or abroad if the nation is threatened.

Yes, the President must go to Congress for the authority to put boots on the ground or involve us in a long military war (as opposed to dropping a few bombs) and they can stop him by cutting off funding. But he has emergency military powers and everyone knows it.

This was an emergency, beyond any doubt.

Iran had hundreds of pounds of enriched uranium, enriched to 60%. Generally you need to be over 92% (although a low yield device can be made with uranium under 90%, but that's just a waste of good fuel. Getting from sixty to ninety five is quick and easy; the hard part is the early enrichments.

In fact, for all intents and purposes, Iran HAD the bomb; they just didn't test one. But in the modern era we don't need to test bombs as that chore can be done by computers, and testing is only so your enemies see you have it. What Iran was doing was trying to shrink their bomb down so they could deliver it on a ballistic missile, and to do that they were pursuing an implosion detonator (as opposed to the gun type which is what the original Little Boy employed).

It was clear they were building bombs; they had a major enrichment program, unnecessary for peaceful nuclear power. In fact they buy their nuclear fuel from Russia and don't need centrifuges to enrich uranium.

Bear in mind too that Israel launched the attack, not President Trump. Trump wisely took advantage of the opportunity to finally finish off Iran's program, and he was well within his authority to do so. After all, Iran has attacked American assets repeatedly over the years; we've BEEN AT WAR with them all along. It may not always have been a hot war but it has been a state of war nonetheless.

Calls to impeach Trump shows the absolute madness of the Democrats; they are prepared to put Americans at risk just so they can obtain their pound of flesh from the man who has bested them repeatedly and exposed them for exactly who and what they are.

Oh,one more thing; Mr. Trump was wise not informing Congress in advance as the Democrat would have fairly sprinted to microphones to spill the beans before we could get this done. Trump understands the need for speed and for secrecy in so delicate an operation. George W. Bush would have take a year and telegraphed it so publicly the Iranians would have moved all their uranium and centrifuges across the southern border into the U.S.  before any action was taken.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:36 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 629 words, total size 4 kb.