WASHINGTON -- Even as he beseeches former colleagues in Congress to vote for President Barack Obama’s plan to bomb Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear in an interview with The Huffington Post that he thinks the president has the right to order air strikes in the face of congressional disapproval.
If that scenario were to materialize -- a bombing campaign after a "no" vote -- the result would almost certainly be an impeachment drive in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Citing their role as commander-in-chief, U.S. presidents have assumed ever-greater latitude in ordering apparent acts of war without obtaining Congress’ permission, as the letter of the Constitution requires. Firing cruise missiles and/or dropping bombs on the military infrastructure of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime would be an “act of war,” according to Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- especially since the United States would not be enforcing a United Nations-sanctioned enforcement mission.
CAIRO — A powerful bomb blasted through a convoy of cars carrying the interior minister along a residential street on Thursday, raising fears of a widely predicted turn toward terrorist violence by opponents of the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.
In more peaceful days, Damascus, the Syrian capital, was a forty-five-minute drive from the Lebanese border crossing of Masnaa. Now the proliferation of government checkpoints along the route has lengthened the journey—by how much depends on the vehicle’s passengers. Names can reflect sectarian identity and presumed political positions. Conscription-age men could be dodging compulsory military service. Women might be related to wanted male rebels, or “terrorists,” as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his supporters call them.