Unqualified Offerings

In a generally favorable response to the post on Congressional hearings below, James Joyner writes that

The War Powers Act acknowledges that the president has the Constitutional authority to use military force, absent Congressional authorization, in “a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces [emphasis mine].” It’s within President Bush’s power, then, to order a proportionate response to this direct threat.

I would argue that it’s obvious that whatever Iran may be doing in Iraq it’s no “national emergency,” and I have Sean McCormack of the State Department to back me up on this:

QUESTION: The Iranian Ambassador — the article in The New York Times says that he was ridiculing some of the evidence that he thinks the U.S. has about Iranian activities inside Iraq. And also I think there’s another report that said that the U.S. military would be presenting evidence this week about activities on –

MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t think there’s any particular timeline associated with that.

QUESTION: Okay. But you do plan to respond to — you know, if he’s ridiculing the evidence –

MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t feel any particular need to respond to the Iranian Ambassador in Iraq. But with respect to talking more about what we know of Iranian activities with these IED networks, as well as the various other activities in which they may be involved in Iraq, at some point we will talk in greater depth about it.

Again, I went through it last week, it was a question of combing through all the mountain of classified information that we’ve managed to accumulate on the topic and all the time we’re accumulating more. And looking through that with an eye towards, yes, we want to be able to better inform publics about this: the Iraqi public, our public as well as other publics. At the same time in talking about that, you don’t want to harm your ability to conduct — collect more information on these topics from the same kinds of sources and methods. So you always have that balance. It is our intention to talk about these things in greater detail in public. I can’t give you a particular timeline on it. I wouldn’t point you to a particular date at this point.

My emphasis in every case. Whatever is or isn’t going on in Iraq, it sure doesn’t sound like an emergency. Sean McCormack figures we can get to it manana.

I’m grateful for James posting the actual text of the War Powers Act, since his excerpt makes it plain that the intent of the act is much more restrictive than media discussion makes it sound. It doesn’t say the President can respond with force to “attack upon . . . [American] armed forces.” It says the President can respond with force to “a national emergency created by” such an attack. It’s there to cover the sort of attack that leaves the President no time to go to Congress for a declaration of war, such as, oh, a massive nuclear strike on the continental United States, or a sudden, massive assault on an overseas base or fleet that requires immediate reinforcement or counterstrike. It certainly doesn’t say, as pundits and Presidential advisors commonly claim, that the President can attack anybody he wants but 60 days later he has to ask Congress if he can keep attacking.

Since we’re plainly on Scott McCormack’s schedule with regard to accusations of Iranian involvement in Iraq, we have plenty of time for both Congress and the Presidency to do their duty and due diligence.