jfish26 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 12:48 pm
IllinoisJayhawk wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 12:41 pm
Fair enough.
Although, I think even without an imminent threat (when are our troops over there truly ever without some sort of imminent threat from various proxies?), Soleimani has done plenty over the years to deserve to be taken out. He's a terrible human and the world is better off without him. He made a career out of endangering our troops. That career is now over.
No doubt. But I do think we have (or are supposed to have, anyway) guardrails around what the executive branch can do without Congressional approval for good reasons.
When you've lost Mike Lee on this issue...yikes.
First, the implicit denial of Iranian agency in your original assessment is real and it is odd, to say the least.
Consider a counter-example: The Russian conspiracy/Steele dossier is now, after two-plus years of investigation considered to be -- being generous -- less than definitive evidence of any sort of collusion.
Nevertheless, the Democrats -- whose presumed nominee was, for most of those two-plus years, Joe Biden -- pushed the collusion narrative over and over and over, with some proclaiming evidence of treason, and many insisting that it constituted grounds for removal from office. In light of all of this, Trump's personal and political defenses were
set to hair-trigger anyway. It is, therefore, fair to say that the Democrats' investigations
contributed to an environment of increased risk for Trump, leading him to seek advantage any way he could, including leveraging foreign aid to a country he believed had damaging information on Biden.
Escalated tensions have consequences. And the Democrats most certainly escalated tensions in Washington. Therefore, it's largely inarguable that
there's a through-line connecting the Democrats' distraction-by-investigation recklessness and the Ukraine phone call.
All of which is to say that
yes, I do think there's a causal connection between the Democrats' behavior and Trump's corruption.
Second, and more relevantly: there should be no "yikes" about Mike Lee demanding Congressional authority for military action. He has been consistent across this administration and the last in believing that the Executive branch is abusing its powers.
Third, and relatedly, at this point in his presidency, Trump is the only 21st century president NOT to have started a war in MENA and toppled a long-time enemy regime, leading to utter chaos. It's interesting (i.e. entirely predictable) that calls for Congress to reassert its Constitutional right/responsibility weren't treated as seriously back when SoS Clinton was chortling on national television about her successful efforts to promote regime change in a nation that had VOLUNTARILY surrendered its WMD.