On April 16, Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who has long protested over US involvement against Yemen, tweeted:
With Trump's veto of @BernieSanders' and my War Powers Resolution, which passed with bipartisan support in Congress, he is risking the lives of millions of Yemeni civilians to famine, deadly airstrikes, and the war crimes of the Saudi regime. We must override his veto.
On May 2, the Senate voted on the presidential veto of S.J.Res.7, which required 67 votes to over-ride. The vote failed, 53-45.
In just over three months, the US Congress voted three times to end US involvement in the criminal war on Yemen. The cumulative Congressional vote total was 354 against US complicity in a crime against humanity, while 266 Republicans voted to let the famine and disease continue with US help. The majority in Congress, while not going so far as trying to end the war itself, at least made an effort to wash the blood off American hands.
Constitutionally, the country can't even manage a pale imitation of Pontius Pilate. By a vote of 1-0, the president gets to thwart democratic government and to prolong destruction of the poorest country in the region for no decent reason. And it's all constitutional, that's the beauty part, because Congress has abdicated its constitutional responsibility over and over and over again since 1950. That's the state of American constitutional democracy today. Congress can't prevent war. Congress can't end war. Congress can't even end American complicity in war crimes.
So yes, the Senate vote of May 2 officially ratified the US Constitution as a meaningless joke insofar as it applies to the presidential ability to make war whenever and wherever he thinks he can get away with it. Constitutionally, Congress still has the "sole power to declare war." The president has the power to make war without declaring it. Yemen is now Trump's war, and he happily blames it on "Iran's malignant activities," unspecified.
Congress has the power, theoretically, to defund any military action it doesn't like. But first it would have to find one. It doesn't have to look far. Now would be the time for a resolution against any military action against Iran without express Congressional approval. That would invite another presidential veto.
According to The Hill on May 10, Rep. Ro Khanna has been discussing with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi whether the House Democrats should appeal Trump's veto to the Supreme Court. Khanna argues that it's unsettled law whether the president has the last word on war and peace.
But after appealing this pro-war veto to the current Supreme Court, where would the country find itself?
The Constitution's not in tatters, it's just irrelevant. That's a bipartisan achievement. And there's little sign that most of the American people care, or even notice.
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