Don’t
let the president start a nuclear war!
Legislation
pending in Congress would prohibit a president
from using the armed
forces “to conduct a first-use nuclear strike
unless such strike is
conducted pursuant to a declaration of war by
Congress that expressly
authorized such strike.”
It
is in the form of twin bills, H.R.
669
in the House of Representatives and the
identically worded S.
200
in the Senate.
The
measure defines “first-use nuclear strike”
as “an attack
using nuclear weapons against an enemy that is
conducted without the
President determining that the enemy has first
launched a nuclear
strike against the United States or an ally of
the United States.”
It
has flaws: It lets him bomb if he errs or lies
that an enemy “has
launched a nuclear strike,” even on an “ally.”
But it might
inhibit arbitrary bomb-dropping, and
it’s the only bill in
Congress raising the issue of executive use of
nuclear weapons.
On
Jan. 24, 2017, Rep. Ted Lieu of the 33rd
Congressional District of California (Los
Angeles) introduced the
legislation in the House of Representatives and
Senator Edward J.
Markey of Massachusetts did so in the Senate.
The
twin bills (see more excerpts below) were
referred to the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate
Committee on Foreign
Relations, respectively. There they rest.
An
obstacle to passage — and how you can help
Problem:
Lieu and Markey are Democrats. They have
assembled 79 and 13 cosponsors,
respectively, but only one is a Republicans
(just Rep. Walter B.
Jones, 3rd
CD of North Carolina, as of 3/27/18).
The
115th
Congress is GOP-controlled, so unless either
bill gets more support
from members in that party, the measure won’t
pass. The starting of
a nuclear war should not be a partisan issue.
Such a war would
quickly annihilate Republicans and Democrats
alike.
If
you have a Republican representative or
senator, ask him or her to be
a cosponsor. Or if you know people in GOP
congressional districts or
states, encourage them to ask.
A
constitutional issue
The
measure says, in part, under “Findings and
Declaration of Policy”:
“The
Constitution gives Congress the sole power to
declare war…. The
framers … understood that the monumental
decision to go to war …
must be made by the representatives of the
people and not by a single
person…. Nuclear weapons have the capability to
instantly kill
millions of people … [and] risk retaliatory
nuclear strikes…. A
first-use nuclear strike … a major act of war …
conducted absent
a declaration of war would violate the
Constitution.”
(See
www.Congress.gov
for the full text and much more info.)
[This document may be downloaded as a PDF flier for
printing and forwarding by clicking: here.]
WAR
and LAW League (WALL) http://www.warandlaw.org warandlaw@yahoo.com
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