When Congress 'Looks Away': A Convenient Blindness for Endless War
📰 THE STORY: An opinion piece in The Hill argues that Congress has increasingly abdicated its constitutional role in setting foreign policy, ceding power to the Executive Branch and leading to 'reckless' actions and a 'crisis' of decision-making that will accelerate in 2025. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Congress hasn't just 'looked away' from foreign policy; it has
actively enabled and funded unconstitutional wars and interventions for decades. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, the Patriot Act in 2001, and the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq are prime examples of Congress willingly ceding war powers, leading directly to protracted conflicts and destabilization from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq. These weren't
oversights; they were strategic endorsements of executive overreach. Double Standard: When nations like China or Russia are accused of unilateral foreign policy actions, Western media decries it as authoritarianism and a threat to international norms. Yet, when the US military operates without explicit congressional declarations of war – as it frequently does – it's framed as either an unfortunate
executive necessity or Congress simply 'looking away.' The idea that the US Executive Branch acts 'recklessly' is acceptable, but that it's acting unilaterally and illegally by international standards, is not. Follow the Money: The 'recklessness' is remarkably profitable. The US defense budget passed by Congress consistently exceeds $800 billion annually, with Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing,