Obama to seek Senate authorization for ISIS war

Developing Just Leadership

Crescent International

Muharram 14, 1436 2014-11-07

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient (2009) is in fighting mood. He wants the newly elected Republican-controlled Congress to give him authorization to wage war that he launched three months ago. Now that's legality for you!

Washington DC, Crescent-online
Friday November 07, 2014, 09:07 EST

The Democrats lost all control of the US Congress to the Republicans in mid-term elections on Tuesday November 4. The Republicans already had control of the House of the Representatives but also grabbed the Senate where the Democrats had tenuous hold until now.

In his post-election press conference Wednesday evening (November 5), Obama announced that he would ask the new Congress for an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF).

This is post facto authorization for Obama’s bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria—the one he began following his September 10 declaration from the White House.

“The idea is to right-size and update whatever authorization Congress provides to suit the current fight,” Obama insisted.

However, given the fact that Republicans are even more war-hungry than the Democrats, it is likely that the change of guard in the US Congress will lead to an intensification of conflict in the Middle East.

As reported by a November 5 article in Antiwar.com, “The victory of Senate hawks has also put NSA reforms and the CIA torture report in serious doubt, with Senate Intelligence Committee member Mark Udall (D – CO) losing his seat.”

“Udall was one of the most public critics of government surveillance and intelligence community abuses, and the committee’s pending reshuffle with more pro-surveillance, pro-torture figures could spell the end to a push for reform,” wrote Jason Ditz.

The loss of key progressive and liberal figures in the Congress willing to stand up to the abuses of the National Security State has nullified the possibility of reform.

While the US has been supplying and organizing ISIS via proxies such as Saudi Arabia’s Bandar and his nefarious intelligence service, Congress resisted the demands of the White House for formalizing the conflict in the Middle East and supporting ISIS.

However, with a hawkish Congress faulting Obama for not accelerating the US government’s total war on Muslim world, it is expected that this political fig leaf will be blown away.

This development will be welcomed by the US’s regional allies such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both of which have been agitating for the US to get directly involved and grant them wealthy bonanzas from the war of attrition against Bashar al Asad.

The Daily Beast reported voices of dissent from the US political culture. “Ron Paul, the isolationist father of Sen. Rand Paul, tweeted Tuesday evening, ‘Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming!’”

The article also quoted William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, the rightwing neo-con mouthpiece, agreeing with Paul.

“I think Ron Paul told the truth,” Kristol told The Daily Beast. “And the truth is that his son had a bad election season and the Republicans who were elected are various species of hawks and not Rand Paul-like doves.”

The fires of war in the Muslim world will spread, and countless other lives will be lost.

END

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