The annual reauthorization of the Department of Defense contains
unprecedented and dangerous language that gives the president virtually
unchecked power to take the country to war and keep us there. This bill
significantly undermines the Constitution, the institution of Congress
and sets the United States on a path of permanent war.
The Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
declares that the United States is in an armed conflict with not only al
Qaeda and the Taliban, but “associated forces” and individuals,
organizations and nations that support such forces. The president could
then have the full legal authority to send American troops to engage in
acts of war anywhere–Yemen, Somalia, Iran, even the United
States–without constitutionally required Congressional authorization
and, consequently, without any restrictions or oversight from the
American people or Congress.
This bill would also make permanent the degradation of law and human
rights which has become Guantanamo. It imposes bans on the transfer of
any detainee held at Guantanamo, including those who have been cleared
of any charges. This means that the United States would be forced to
keep imprisoning men who are known to be innocent or are not a threat.
This bill not only allows the imprisonment of innocent people, but could
mandate it.
The bill also prevents the use of Article III federal courts for the
trial of most terrorism suspects. This circumvents our system of
justice and our protections under the Constitution, showing a lack of
faith in US law enforcement and courts which are the constitutional
venues for stopping terrorism. Our federal courts have a long history of
trying terrorist suspects, while military courts are untested, lacking
in legitimacy and of questionable effectiveness. Since 9/11, federal
courts have prosecuted over 400 terrorism-related cases, while military
courts have convicted only six.
It’s as if the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan never happened. These
wars cost thousands of lives of our men and women in uniform, and
perhaps a million civilian lives, with long-term costs approaching $5
trillion. Yet, in light of the attempt to try to make permanent an
authorization for war, it is as if the consequences of the wars we are
in have not occurred. It’s as if our “humanitarian” military
intervention in Libya, which has helped create full blown civil war and
which has ensnared us in yet another military stalemate in the region,
never happened. It is as if centuries of evidence of the ramifications
of the military overreach of empires never happened. It’s as if the
Constitution, which requires Congress to have a say in when and where we
go to war and which guarantees U.S. citizens the right to a fair and
speedy trial, was never written.
Congress must protect the American people from the over-reach of any
Chief Executive who is enamored with unilateralism, pre-emption, first
strike and the power to prosecute war without Constitutional or
statutory proscriptions.
Permanent, global war is not the answer. It will not increase our
national security. Far from ridding the world of terrorism, it will
become a terrorist recruitment program.
Written by Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Resposted by the author from The Nation.
Follow Rep. Dennis Kucinich on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/RepKucinich
© 2011 Huffington Post
Photo by Flickr user Tony the Misfit
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