[Vision2020] "approval" vs. "authorization"

[Donovan Arnold]

"a
national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."
 
That's about as wide open as a barn door. I'm sure
somebody in the US, or the
US Government lost some possession by Syria, felt attacked, or a troop
was injured. 
 
And;
 
" the President can commit the US to an armed conflict only if
authorized by Congress"
Again, what does "commit" mean. Surely launching a few thousand missiles
is not a commitment of our armed forces. It could be a military exercise.  
 
My understanding, is the United States President cannot
continue an attack or deploy US Troops for more then 90 days without permission
of Congress, and must remain within the budget constraints set by Congress. 
Donovan J. Arnold  

________________________________
 From: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
To: "vision2020 at moscow.com" <vision2020 at moscow.com> 
Sent: Friday, September 6, 2013 9:23 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] "approval" vs. "authorization"
  


I just wanted to throw down a little rant here about how the media is portraying the Syria situation.

From what I've seen, they all characterize the President going to Congress as him asking for "approval" to attack Syria.  Shouldn't he be asking for "authorization" instead?  Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives the ability to declare war to Congress.  The War Powers Resolution of 1973 states that the President can commit the US to an armed conflict only if authorized by Congress or in the case of  "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."  We haven't been attacked by Syria, so if the President orders an attack on Syria without authorization by Congress to do so, he would be acting illegally.  

Is that
 correct?  What might I be missing that would give him the authority to attack Syria without authorization by Congress, as he originally intended to do?  

I'll be very interested in this question if Congress turns him down and he goes ahead and authorizes an attack on Syria anyway.

Paul


=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
              http://www.fsr.net/
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20130906/b5aac562/attachment.html>