Opinion | Why Have You Started This War, Mr. President? (Gift Article) (www.nytimes.com)
from rolandwallner@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 04:27
https://lemmy.world/post/43709446

#world

threaded - newest

[deleted] on 01 Mar 04:39 next collapse
.
Photonic@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:02 next collapse

How about we discuss the article and not its source?

TheTechnician27@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:18 next collapse

An understandable question, but this opinion article is by the editorial board; the source and the author in this case are functionally identical, so it’s entirely valid, in my opinion, to point out contradictions like this.

I don’t think you should be downvoted for what would otherwise be a reasonable, level-headed response.


Edit: by the way, @SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone, maybe a source besides a screenshot of a ChatGPT log is appropriate here.


Edit 2: In part because I think some of that is even hallucinated. E.g. point 3, the real headline is: “Trump’s Remarks on Migrants Illustrate His Obsession With Genes” Did you check any of this before you posted it here?

Photonic@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:23 collapse

Even if this is the editorial board, these are all unrelated topics where, yes, they could have done better, but perhaps it was the naivety of the time. And it’s definitely not as if they’re a pro-Trump news outlet.

Grimy@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:25 next collapse

We can do both.

[deleted] on 01 Mar 05:32 collapse
.
TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 01 Mar 05:14 collapse

They literally posted an article supporting the war earlier today, too.

The NYT is part of the US’s consent manufacturing machine.

They just also coincidentally post some decent recipes and host some fun word games.

Edit: Serious Eats posts far better recipes, though.

Photonic@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:34 next collapse

Got a link to the article where they support the war? Can’t find it

TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 01 Mar 05:52 collapse

Here ya go. It’s another opinion piece by, if you’re familiar with the NYT, you guessed it!

archive.ph/…/iran-military-strike-trump.html

Edit: whoops its older than just today, that mighta thrown off your search.

Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 01 Mar 07:35 next collapse

Fucking Bret Stephens 🤦🤬

ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 11:59 collapse

Him and Ross DoubtThat

Photonic@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 08:48 collapse

Link didn’t work for me but I found it through the Bret comment below. I don’t know the guy – but now I read the article I remember reading something from him before, and looking him up on wiki because I thought “WTF NYT?!”. I guess he is the voice of conservatism / MAGA in the NYT. So yeah, it’s rather strange that they would allow a voice like that in their newspaper, but I guess that’s the journalists’ compulsion to show both sides of a story even if one side of that story smells rotten AF.

That being said: the Irani regime is horrible and they have been killing their citizens for weeks now and have been suppressing them for much longer. Thousands of innocents are dead. Something clearly had to be done to stop the bloodshed.

If it were anyone other than these two old war criminals attacking the Irani regime, I would support it as well. But of course the issue is that these old farts are using it as an excuse to increase their power in the Middle East.

Europe should have stepped up their game, but as always, they were as slow as a constipated turd moving through a rectum. And now it’s too late.

criticon@lemmy.ca on 01 Mar 07:39 collapse

I like the NYT journalism but their opinion pieces are all over the place, they always seem to go for the two sides, or even more sides so there’ll always be at least one you agree with and one that you absolutely hate

PattyMcB@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 04:44 next collapse

a resolution meant to prevent Mr. Trump from starting a war without congressional approval

Uhhh. I have news for ya, cuckgress

venusaur@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 04:55 next collapse

The man is proving to be untouchable. If you have enough money, power and legal advice you can get away with just about anything.

PattyMcB@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 04:58 next collapse

My point being that he isn’t CURRENTLY supposed to be able to declare war. The Marines are the only branch of the military he should be able to send without a congressional declaration.

But, since even TWO impeachments wouldn’t stick, who will have the balls to stop him? I see your point.

timewarp@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:03 next collapse

Democrats could file a TRO in federal court immediately asking to pause operations & that his actions violate Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution. But they almost certainly won’t, and they want you believing exactly what you do now, which is “our hands are tied, nothing we can do, send money & then we can do something, etc.” The reality is a vast majority of them are funded by AIPAC & support this, and they’ll almost certainly have a majority of ignorant or naive people repeating their lies.

Here are some things they could try as well:

Sponsoring a Soldier’s Habeas Corpus Petition

Instead of lawmakers suing on their own behalf, a coalition of anti-war lawmakers could legally and financially back a Habeas Corpus petition for a U.S. service member currently deployed or ordered to participate in the Iran strikes.

  • The Strategy: The lawsuit would argue that because the war is unconstitutional and lacks congressional authorization, the soldier’s deployment is an illegal deprivation of their liberty (violating their Fifth Amendment Due Process rights).
  • Why it could work: A soldier ordered into a combat zone undeniably has “standing”—their life and liberty are directly at risk. If a group of lawmakers files amicus briefs and publicly coordinates this lawsuit, it forces a federal judge to answer whether the military’s orders are lawful. It takes the politicians out of the plaintiff’s seat and puts the actual victim of the constitutional violation in front of the judge.

The “Mike Gravel Maneuver” (The Speech or Debate Clause)

If the minority party knows the administration is lying about Iran posing an “imminent threat,” but the proof is highly classified, they do not need a judge or a majority to release it. They just need one brave lawmaker.

  • The Law: Under the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 6), members of Congress have absolute immunity from prosecution for anything they say or read during official legislative business.
  • The Action: A single lawmaker (like a dissenting member of the Intelligence or Foreign Affairs Committees) could walk onto the floor of the House or Senate, or convene a specialized subcommittee, and read the classified intelligence proving the administration is lying straight into the public Congressional Record.
  • The Precedent: This is exactly what Senator Mike Gravel did in 1971 when he read the top-secret Pentagon Papers into the record to expose the government’s lies about the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ruled he could not be prosecuted.
  • The Complicity Test: If Democrats claim they have seen intelligence proving the strikes are unjustified but refuse to read it into the record because they are afraid of losing their security clearances or violating committee rules, they are prioritizing decorum over stopping a war.

The “Senate Hold”

The U.S. Senate runs almost entirely on something called “Unanimous Consent” to function smoothly and confirm nominees.

  • The Law: A single Senator has the power to object to unanimous consent, placing a “hold” on Senate business.
  • The Action: Just one or two anti-war Senators could publicly declare that they will place a blanket hold on every single military promotion, defense contractor confirmation, and Pentagon budgetary consent request until the administration publicly releases the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos justifying the strikes on Iran and the civilian boats.
  • Why it Works: It does not require a majority. It single-handedly grinds the Pentagon’s administrative machinery to a halt. If the minority party refuses to use this leverage to demand transparency for an unconstitutional war, “our hands are tied” is just an excuse.

Sponsoring a Qui Tam (Whistleblower) Lawsuit

Since minority politicians cannot sue the President directly due to “lack of standing,” they can bypass the political blockade by using corporate fraud laws against the defense industry.

  • The Law: The False Claims Act allows private citizens with insider knowledge to file a lawsuit on behalf of the government (known as a qui tam suit) against companies defrauding the taxpayers.
  • The Action: Minority lawmakers could actively solicit and legally shield a whistleblower from inside a defense contractor (like the companies manufacturing the missiles hitting Iran). The lawsuit would argue that because the military operation violates the War Powers Resolution and the Anti-Deficiency Act, the defense contractor is fulfilling an illegal contract and fraudulently billing the U.S. taxpayer.
  • Wh
PattyMcB@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:08 next collapse

I didn’t say their hands were tied, but he shouldn’t be committing acts of war unilaterally. That was my point

timewarp@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:23 collapse

Agreed… I just don’t want people acting like there is nothing that Democrats can do right now, including cutting off funding, drafting resolutions, etc. Maybe they will do something for once, but I don’t have my hopes up. Seeing how they literally enabled the genocide in Palestine, it seems like most of them are bought & paid for.

FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 14:05 collapse

They’re not going to do anything, not because they’re powerless, but because they’re bought off by AIPAC and support the war too, and not only that, they have a maniacal leader in charge willing to take all of the heat off of them by acting without Congress and giving them plausible deniability. It’s a dream scenario if you’re an AIPAC-bribed legislator.

JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch on 01 Mar 07:50 collapse

What is this LLM slop?

Half the stuff Trump wouldn’t care about, the other half would not really affect any current military operation. Plus most of it he’d just ignore like he did most other things, e.g. tarifs are illegal, welp, let me just use some other law to justify tarifs

FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 14:04 collapse

You’ve just demonstrated my favorite excuse from Dems.

“It’s okay that they don’t do anything because opposition is hard, and it might not work anyway, so why do anything?”

venusaur@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:05 collapse

Yeah he’s not supposed to do a lot of stuff. He farting all over the founding father’s faces.

PattyMcB@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 05:09 next collapse

That’s very generous of you to limit it to “farts”

watson387@sopuli.xyz on 01 Mar 15:13 collapse

They just forgot to add “spray” before “farts”.

Crackhappy@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 17:19 collapse

And since I don’t doubt that he has limited control of his sphincter, he’s probably sharting all over George Washington. “do ya like that George?”

BillyClark@piefed.social on 01 Mar 08:43 collapse

He’s grabbed the country by the pussy, and we let him do it, just like he said.

FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 14:00 collapse

I think that’s incorrect.

Donald became inevitable when the Democratic Party opted to rule in a manner that didn’t distinguish them from the Republicans in any meaningful way. “We” didn’t let him do anything. “We” exist in a country where absent a billion dollar fortune or membership in the Epstein Class, you have no power whatsoever to effect change outside of your local municipality.

pulsewidth@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 07:52 collapse

If they couldn’t stop any prior president from starting a war, then why would Trump be any different.

This will never be declared a ‘war’ legally by the US government, because those require congressional approval. It will instead be a ‘military operation’, just like the Iraq War, Desert Storm 2, Afghanistan, Libya and pretty much all major military engagements since WW2.

JustinTheGM@ttrpg.network on 01 Mar 08:05 next collapse

We really ought to be calling those ‘illegal military operations’

FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 13:59 next collapse

Wild how the small innovation of just changing terminology completely allowed presidents to get around the law.

Under Obama, civilians became: “Enemy or Unarmed Combatants”. Under Bush, torture became “enhanced interrogation” and kidnapping became “extraordinary rendition”. Under Clinton war became “peacekeeping operation”. They all loved using the term “air strike” instead of “bombing” or “settlers” instead of “murderers and rapists”.

I hate that it works, but it works.

WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works on 01 Mar 21:53 collapse

the Department of War does not do war, only military operations! that would be a good joke if people wouldn’t be dying

[deleted] on 01 Mar 05:08 next collapse
.
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works on 01 Mar 05:30 next collapse

The President is merely acting according to his nature - the ultimate explanation of why he is doing this is that the American public chose to trust the sort of man that he is. Challenging the fox’s motives after he has been voted back into the henhouse is a waste of words.

MudMan@fedia.io on 01 Mar 06:48 collapse

I keep thinking back to all the conversations with alleged leftists here on how they were both the same and Biden was too soft on Israel, which disqualified Harris and at least Trump was running on ending foreign wars.

Still haven't seen any "oh, wow, yeah, that's way worse than I thought it'd be, I was kinda wrong on that one", either.

I know I should not be pushing the issue in hopes that they quietly show up for the midterms, but at this point US politics is not worth engaging with and you can only take so many middle class cosplayers smugly calling you a naive centrist for even entertaining a gradient of madness between US political factions before you start getting flashbacks the circling of the drain speeds up.

AntiBullyRanger@ani.social on 01 Mar 06:27 next collapse

Mr. President

When’s NYT compost event?

FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 14:02 next collapse

He started this war for two reasons: Israel told him to, and if he failed to act, they were going to expose the extent of his crimes against children as recorded in the Epstein files.

Formfiller@lemmy.world on 01 Mar 22:07 collapse

Because he raped and murdered kids with the Israeli’s, politicians and oligarchs and they don’t want to go to jail so they’re going to blow up some schools and hospitals and hope we forget