TRUMP'S MILITARY STRIKE ON SYRIA WAS "UNLAWFUL"

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     No green light from Congress means Donald Trump's military strike on Syria was "unlawful."  That's the word from Hillary Clinton's 2016 Vice Presidential running mate. Senator Tim Kaine says..."(Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad is a brutal dictator who must be held accountable for his actions."  But a 7th grade history student knows that the Virginia Democrat is one-hundred-percent correct with the following. "The Constitution says war must be declared by Congress.  (Donald Trump's) failure to seek Congressional approval is unlawful."

     I absolutely agree with Senator Kaine.  As a Jew, especially...I strenuously object to the sickening slaughter of innocent men, women and children.  The world must never, ever witness any deaths that are reminiscent of The Holocaust...even if it's a fraction of the amount of people who were killed in Nazi Germany.  The heinous poisoning of powerless children and defenseless babies - not to mention adults - by what might have been sarin nerve gas...is beyond horrific. And I in no way feel that Syria...and the regime of Assad...should be allowed to get away with such atrociously gruesome murders.  But Donald Trump is a loose cannon.  He is too impulsive.  He does not think things through carefully and thoroughly. Americans have noticed that with every off-the-cuff remark and tweet throughout his Presidential campaign and over his first eleven weeks in The White House.

     On Thursday night, April 6th, 2017, Trump ordered a military strike on Syria.  The Pentagon says two U.S. warships in the Mediterranean Sea launched 59 tomahawk missiles on an airfield in the northwestern part of the country.  It's where the United States believes Assad dropped chemical weapons, at dawn on Tuesday, April 4th. The carnage killed at least seventy people with another one-hundred or more being treated in hospitals...some of those victims in critical condition.

     American military strikes need to be discussed and approved by Congress.  Even Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky - prior to the strike in Syria - stated that if Trump used military action it would be "illegal and unconstitutional" if he did it without Congressional approval.  And although The Pentagon says the intent of the U.S. mission was not to target people...that doesn't mean nobody perished in the attack.  However...as this column is being published, there is no report of any deaths.  But who's to say that the next time, Trump won't order a military raid that unknowingly...or even knowingly, for that matter...kills moms and dads who are tucking their kids under the covers or reading them a bedtime story.  Casualties of war...collateral damage...is never acceptable when the victims are children.  

     The "proportional" response - as the Trump Administration called the strike on Syria - echoed language used by Michael Douglas and Martin Sheen in Aaron Sorkin's 1995 motion picture screenplay, The American President.  And although, so far, no innocent individuals are known to have lost their lives by the U.S. action in Syria... they could have...they may have.  Directed by Rob Reiner, there was a scene in The American President movie where the President ordered an attack on a foreign nation where "a janitor" who was working on "the night shift" was going to be blown up by the U.S. military strike.  That was fiction.  But who knows?  Perhaps a real-life janitor in Syria...somebody who had nothing to do with Assad or his brutal assault... somebody who has children of his own...somebody who has a mother and father who love him...might have been fatally wounded by this..."proportional" response.

     In remarks made Thursday night after the military action, Donald Trump spoke to the nation from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.  "Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children."  And "It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons."  The Defense Department says it appears that the Syrian airfield was severely damaged, thus the attack probably reduced the amount of chemical weapons in Assad's arsenal...and, therefore...it will hinder...or perhaps stop the use of such dangerous toxic gas.

     But Donald Trump must not be allowed to fire missiles on...or bomb...other countries on a whim.  He does not have the authority to act on his own without Congressional approval.  Trump must obey the laws of our land.  He must obey the United States Constitution.

     We as a nation...and we as a planet...cannot afford to risk the possibility of a full-scale, major combat campaign with other countries around the globe.  There will never be World War III.  It will simply be called...The End Of The World.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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