Campaigning

President Obama once again illustrates the difference between campaigning and governing when he talks about sending missals into Syria like he did in Libya. Here is what he said as Senator Obama: “The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,” candidate Obama told The Boston Globe in late 2007. He added that the president can only act unilaterally in “instances of self-defense.” When Bush made the decision to go into Iraq he had the approval of 77 Senators including 28 Democrats. He even received encouragement from many democratic senators as shown in a letter sent to Bush. “[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.” — From a letter signed by Joe Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara A. Milulski, Tom Daschle, & John Kerry among others on October 9, 1998 12 countries including the US gave hundreds of tons of chemical and biological weapons to Saddam and so the world knew that he had WMD. The mistake that the Bush administration made was to ask the question, “where are they”, instead of asking, “where did the go”. As we investigate further into the Syrian situation we may find out where they went since samples of these type weapons can be analyzed and there origin determined.