Asia Unhedged — Trump doesn’t need congressional approval to attack North Korea: Mattis

The US Constitution stipulates that only Congress has the authority to declare war. But Article II of the same document also says the President has the power to unilaterally order military action when he determines that a foreign political entity poses a clear and present danger to the safety and security of the US.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at the same hearing of Trump’s powers, “I think it would have to be fact-based and given consideration as to the circumstances around an imminent threat.”….

Asia Times

Trump doesn’t need congressional approval to attack North Korea: Mattis

Asia Unhedged

Sdd also

Drunk with power.

Astute News
Is It Insanity, Evil, or Both That Has the Western World in Its Grip?
Asif Aziz

LARRY WILKERSON: I think the AUMF and its perpetuity almost, 16+ years now, I guess 16 years, a month, and several days, is a very dangerous thing. As James Madison said, the surest way to tyranny is through the War Power. The military's understandable. Mattis, Kelly, McMaster, all those guys. They're understandable, 'cause the military never wants any inhibitions in its way when it feels like its at war.

But we've used this Authorization for the Use of Military Force for 14 different countries. We've used it 37 times. Everyone knows about Iraq and Afghanistan, but they don't know about Djibouti, Yemen, the Philippines, Kenya, Eritrea, Niger, and on and on. It's about time the Congress exercised its Article 1 War Power, and took some of this back from the President. This is absurd that we can, we're looking at another 16-17 years. I mean, there's no end in sight to this.…

But we're also overplaying our hand militarily and we're really making a lot of people in the world, including our allies and friends, begin to wonder at our sanity....

The bigger issue here I think that you suggested with these three generals, I have to back up a little bit on and say earlier you may recall I was fairly optimistic that they would in fact be a check and balance, if you will, on a rather irrational and totally inexperienced President. I'm not sure of that anymore, but I did say originally, and this is part of my concern now, that all three of them, McMaster, Mattis, and Kelly, are all exponents, advocates of practitioners of the empire.

They're all military practitioners of the empire, and as such, they [believe] that the empire has to keep fighting these...on its periphery, even if it bankrupts them. I just read General Mattis' memorandum out to the troops, so to speak. I was bowled over by it. There's nothing in there about new strategic guidance, about cutting spending, about doing all the things the Defense Department really desperately needs to do. It's just more of the same. More of the maintenance of empire, especially the empire on its peripheries....

Well, we've let the military instrument get completely out of hand. Frankly, we have let it get utterly and totally out of hand. We have let the military industrial complex that Eisenhower told us about, come to fruition in a way that even Eisenhower I don't think would have predicted. When he said, "This is no way of life at all. This is under the threatening cloud of war. Humanity hanging on a cross of iron," I don't think he had any idea the cross of iron would be as tall and wide as it is today.

The people like Kelly and Mattis and McMaster, they represent that cross of iron. So no matter how rational they are, no matter how good a strategic thinker they are, no matter how professional, full of integrity, high character they are, their profession is the profession of killing people for the state. That was my profession for 31 years. That's a profession that one needs to be very careful about allowing to have so much influence on national decision-making, but we've let that happen, and that's a very dangerous situation for us to be in....

TRNN
Post 9/11 AUMF Law Gives Trump Power to Wage Perpetual War

Sharmini Peries interviews Col. Lawrence Wilkerson