The US Senate on Thursday advanced a bipartisan war powers resolution to prevent Donald Trump from taking further military actions against Venezuela, after he ordered a weekend raid to capture that country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, without giving Congress advance notice.
The measure passed with 52 senators in favor and 47 opposed. All Democrats voted for the resolution , as did Republicans Rand Paul, Todd Young, Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley and Susan Collins.
Should the Senate approve the measure, it will need to pass the House and be signed by Trump.
The war powers resolution, introduced by the Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, requires Trump to seek permission before attacking or otherwise using the military against Venezuela. Following the Saturday raid that saw US special forces assault the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and spirit Maduro to New York City to face trial on charges related to “narco-terrorism”, the president said he did not tell lawmakers beforehand because “Congress has a tendency to leak”.
The enforcement of the executive comes almost exclusively from people in the executive refusing to follow their orders. If the Supreme Court says “the War Powers Act applies, duh” it still won’t mean anything unless the military refuses to do the wars. Congress saying it or the SC ruling it is just an effort to get them to do that.
I thought they called this a criminal prosecution rather than a war as a loophole, am I wrong?
They can call it a ballet, it doesn’t make it one, and the human soldiers who will be on the hook for following illegal orders won’t be protected because of it.