The newest Liberal failure.

Clinton's attack on Iraq
Military aggression and political diversion
By the Editorial Board
17 December 1998
The launching of US air and missile attacks on Iraq is a measure both of the desperation of the Clinton administration and of the criminal recklessness and bellicosity of American imperialism. Thousands of Iraqi lives are to be sacrificed, for the short-term goal of preserving Clinton's presidency, and for the long-term goal of maintaining US dominance in the oil-rich Middle East.

The timing of the attack, on the eve of the impeachment debate and vote in the House of Representatives, is clearly bound up with the political crisis of the Clinton White House. As he has throughout this political crisis, at every point when his presidency has been threatened, Clinton has sought to appease his right-wing opponents with the threat or use of military force.

Clinton's attack on Iraq: Military aggression and political diversion

The "Blunder in the Balkans" (to borrow Rush Limbaugh's apt phrase describing the NATO attacks on Yugoslavia) promises to be the capstone of Bill Clinton's legacy. The Perjurer-in-Chief and Rapist-in-Chief, the man who heads the most corrupt presidency in American history, has now lead the United States into a war in which we do not belong, either politically, morally or constitutionally.

The United States has absolutely no vital interests at stake in Yugoslavia; the conflict there is the kind of European war which Americans should avoid, if we follow the advice of the early American presidents, beginning with George Washington in his famous Farewell Address. The situation in Yugoslavia has been ably summarized by journalist Philip Terzian: "We are bombing a sovereign nation, not a member of NATO, which is not disturbing its neighbors but seeking, instead, to prevent one of its provinces from seceding. Bear in mind that the United States fought a bloody, four-year civil war, on the issue of secession (we're against it) and that NATO, in its action against the Serbs, now proposes to invade a European state -- in the Balkans, no less -- to resolve an internal ethnic dispute. For the first time since 1945, the German air force is in action against another European country. And everyone agrees that air assaults are not conclusive. In order to achieve what we want, it might well be necessary to introduce ground troops."

The Clinton administration's decision to bomb Yugoslavia, under the rubric of NATO, is an incredibly stupid foreign policy blunder. Not only is the situation there none of the United States' business, our participation in the NATO bombings threatens to de-stabilize eastern Europe far more than anything done by Slobodan Milosevic's government. (Indeed, it can be argued that the bombing of Kosovo worsened the so-called "ethnic cleansing" and other atrocities being committed by Serbian or Yugoslav forces in that province.) Critics of the United States and of the West generally can point to the bombings as clear evidence of western "imperialism." Undoubtedly, many Communists and other leftists in the new NATO member nations of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic are doing just that -- possibly setting back for decades whatever progress in foreign relations the United States has made in eastern Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union.

THE FEDERALISTS' PAPER: Analysis: Clinton's War

COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY RELIEF


PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

1. In this action seventeen members of Congress seek declaratory relief declaring that the Defendant, the President of the United States, is unconstitutionally continuing an offensive military attack by United States Armed Forces against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without obtaining a declaration of war or other explicit authority from the Congress of the United States as required by Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, and despite Congress' decision not to authorize such action.

2. Plaintiffs also seek a declaration that a report pursuant to Section 1543(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution was required to be submitted on March 26, 1999, within 48 hours of the introduction into hostilities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia of United States Armed Forces. Additionally, Plaintiffs seek a declaration that, pursuant to Section 1544(b) of the Resolution, the President must terminate the use of United States Armed Forces engaged in hostilities against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia no later than sixty calendar days after March 26, 1999. The President must do so unless the Congress declares war or enacts other explicit authorization, or has extended the sixty day period, or the President determines that thirty additional days are necessary to safely withdraw United States Armed Forces from combat.

TOM CAMPBELL ET AL. V. WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON