Biden’s Strikes in Yemen Are Unconstitutional, Bipartisan Members of Congress Say

IIRC the President has power over the navy to conduct essentially war acts for 30 days before congressional approval. Going after the constitutionality if this act is stupid. Focus on the anti-war angle.

American Presidents piss on the Constitution and then use it to wipe their asses. This is not news.

This article is bullshit.

The War Powers Resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30-day withdrawal period, without congressional authorization for use of military force (AUMF) or a declaration of war by the United States.

The president can engage in airstrikes or in naval or ground warfare as long as they notify Congress after the fact within two days, and then can carry on operations for three months without congressional approval. It is used all the time.

US armed forces came under attack by Houthi forces on multiple occasions. Biden is well within the law in committing military forces to action, and could do anything up to and including a ground invasion of Yemen with a hundred thousand marines (although he won’t - this is going to be bombs and drones).

You can argue that Congress should not have abdicated its responsibility to declare war back in 1973 (I think it was a stupid idea and has been ripe for abuse), but this is what every president has used since it was passed.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The U.S. and U.K. led a series of airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday evening, setting off alarms globally about how the attacks play into the smoldering regional risk of conflict — including a stream of questions from Congress about whether Joe Biden was legally authorized to conduct the strikes at all.

In a statement, Biden said, “Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces—together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands—successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways.”

With Israel being brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, for allegedly committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the Houthi blockade of Israeli trade in the Red Sea could gain a newfound global legitimacy.

“It’s appalling that instead of acting to stop Israeli war crimes, the Biden administration chose to further damage both our global reputation and our Constitutional system by launching a new unauthorized conflict against Yemen.”

“Iran sowed hatred across the Middle East, and the world is now reaping endless attacks from Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthis,” said Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, who showed up to Congress in an Israel Defense Forces uniform on October 13, 2023.

While Biden justified his Yemen strikes without congressional authorization, in 2020, when President Donald Trump was escalating hostilities with Iran, he was a staunch defender of the notion that Congress should be consulted before taking military action that could spark U.S. involvement in a regional war.

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Remember the Republican reaction when Obama did the same thing in Libya?

Reeeeeee! 72 hours to get our approval or we'll impeach you! Reeeeeee! Not authorized! Not funded!

Then when our embassy there... in Benghazi... was attacked... it was years of "Reeeee! Why didn't you DO something??!?!?!"