Military opposing Iran war

The U.S. Constitution clearly gives Congress, and only Congress, the power to “declare war.” Yet since the last declaration of war, in World War II, we have had continual undeclared and therefore unconstitutional wars: Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Finally, its forces broken in Iraq, the U.S. military is standing up to Bush on starting yet another undeclared and unconstitutional war, this time against Iran. All American military officers take oaths to follow the U.S. Constitution, not to blindly follow a dictatorial president. Now, some of them finally are taking those oaths seriously.

Glen Greenwald has the details:

There have been some equally extraordinary reports about what appears to be the virtual refusal of senior military officials to permit a war with Iran. Several months ago, it was reported that the CENTCOM Commander, Admiral William Fallon, blocked what had appeared to be the successful efforts by Dick Cheney and administration neocons to send a third aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf and “vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM”….

This is what you get when you have a Rush Limbaugh Nation — a country filled with war cheerleaders whose insatiable appetite for new military conflicts is matched only by their steadfast refusal to volunteer to fight.

Unfortunately, of the presidential candidates in the two major parties, only Republican Ron Paul and Democrats Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Bill Richardson are against an unconstitutional war with Iran.

Even the top supposedly anti-war Democrats — Hillary, Obama, and Edwards — are OK on a war with Iran. None has served in the military. And they care as much for our troops’ welfare as they do for the U.S. Constitution — that is, not at all.

The same is true for the top Republican candidates — Romney, McCain, Giuliani, Thompson, and Huckabee — although at least McCain did serve in the military.

Congress remains supine, unable to stop the Iraq war, let alone a new war with Iran, even though Democrats were given a majority by voters specifically to stop this war madness. Aren’t we supposed to be a democracy, where the government enacts the people’s wishes while following the Constitution?