On Thursday evening, following the launch of more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles on a Syrian air base, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said that the united States was not attacked, and called on President Donald Trump to follow the Constitution and come before Congress for a declaration of war.
“While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked,” Paul said. ” The President needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution, and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate.”
“Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer and Syria will be no different,” he added.
Again, here is the libertarian making the exact case a Grizzly Bear would make. Unlike wolf packs, when grizzly bears pass each other on their journeys, they do not reflexively attack. They do not have morals they hold their compatriots to, because there is no in-group that needs to be homogenous and copacetic. They are not evolved to police an in-group, or risk injury on “principle,” for things which are not a direct threat to their well being.
Wolves, by contrast will fight any wolves they happen across on their travels. They will fight if in-group members do not respect the pack hierarchy when eating. They have rules about social interactions, mating, and child-rearing, and those rules must be enforced on others. Seeing others violating those rules in innately triggering, even if it is not immediately threatening to survival.
Notice Rand classifies himself as a libertarian, while the establishment GOP who support the attacks would call themselves conservative. Ideologies are the intellectual manifestations of reproductive strategies. Conservatism is the K-selected reproductive strategy, while libertarianism is the strategy designed for environments where population density is too low to support either r or K-selection, due to sparse resource availability. Which leaves liberals as the r-selected rabbits.
Tell everyone about r/K Theory, because the choice is r or K
[…] Rand Paul Opposes Syrian Attacks […]
Anecdotally, I know many conservatives who oppose the strike. I mean, what purpose does it serve? Unless it was to send a message to the Chicoms-Norks, in which case ok I see the logic, but more THAADs and nukes in the PAC would really get their attention. Fundamentally AC, there may be a new type of animal behavior in your zoo, the American. Traditionally Americans were mostly Grizzlies, that had to co-operate for their freedom. So traditional America really becomes a pack of Grizzlies when threatened, that goes home when the threats are gone. The only requirement is that all should be bad-ass enough to be a Grizzly. It looks as if this was something like the founders had intended, a pack of Grizzlies.
Could be. On the strike, I would normally oppose it, but Trump is actually the first President in a long time where I would trust him to likely make the right decision. My guess is there is something we don’t know. Maybe Assad wanted the strike to cement his support among anti-American groups he needs to keep a rein on. Maybe Putin set it up as a test of Donald, to see if he could take Ukraine. Or maybe Trump felt it was necessary to scare China into dealing with the Norks. I find the idea Donald Trump, of all people, was bamboozled by the neocons and cucks unlikely. He knows something.
Leave it to Mr. Paul to get the Constitution wrong.
The President does not require the authorization of Congress to take military action. The President may conduct military action as he sees fit with the forces at his disposal.
What the President cannot do without Congressional approval, is to declare war. Such a declaration would authorize military mobilization and action beyond the scope of current budget and order of battle.
I find it double hilarious, the self-stylized right are now tripping over themselves to show off how ‘anti-war’ they are in order to conform to leftist propaganda and re-adjustment of history. In other words, they are trying to conform to the standards set by the leftists, instead of reality.
Shameful.
I’ve long scratched my head at Libertarians and all their “Non-Agression Principle” schtick. It sounds wonderful to leave everyone alone and let him do his own thing…when you live in Heaven rather than on Earth. Libertarianism cannot coexist with evil, and this world is filled with great evil.
So yah, if you’re a bear, you can always wander around and take care of just you. But only in a fantasy world where you never bump into someone who wants what you have. And this world has gotten pretty crowded….
FEMA uses the expression “Society is only ever nine meals away from total chaos”. Find a population of bears whose forest was just devastated by a fire, and those bears will quickly abandon their Non-Agression Principle.
It was interesting to learn about this attack while also reading H. R. McMaster’s “Dereliction of Duty.” I’ve always considered our military involvement in Viet Nam a huge mistake, and always had an extremely low opinion of LBJ. But reading McMaster’s book has made it clear I had no idea just how deep and pervasive the rot in DC was, even before LBJ became President. McMaster makes it clear we lost the war in Viet Nam before most of us and most in Congress had ever even thought seriously about it.
My reason for mentioning this is my concern that we were headed this way again under President Obama, and would surely have arrived at an equally horrible outcome had Hillary Clinton been elected. Again, lying was everywhere, and truth nowhere to be found, as pointless and hopeless US military adventures continued to proliferate around the world, once again without the slightest strategy or coherent objective, and no chance whatsoever of winning in the long run. We seriously dodged a bullet in November, for which I continue to thank God daily.
Like Rand, I’m dubious of this week’s sending of cruise missiles to Syria, but willing to hope President Trump knows things I don’t that made it a good decision. For anyone inclined to trash Rand for his not being rah rah pro all war everywhere, may I only recommend reading “Dereliction of Duty”, to see just how far and quickly off the rails it is possible to go once a choice is made to hide truth from Congress and voters for fear they won’t be able to handle it.