HOUSE VOTE ON SYRIA EXPLAINS WHY FOUNDERS ESTABLISHED A STRONG EX BRANCH

The recent vote in the House of Representatives.(October 15, 2019)..made it so clear why our prescient Founders established a powerful Executive Branch.  They were were well aware of the perils of “mob rule”.  They lived through the difficult times of colonial misrule, diverse interests of a struggling young nation, and conflicting polices of a religiously, culturally and ethnically diverse citizenry.  Through the forge of these perils they wisely hammered out a constitution which limited the power in foreign policy of the most democratic and most electorally responsive branch of government—but the most unruly and too easily manipulated  by mass appeal and emotion.

The recent overwhelming vote in the House against President Trump’s decision to remove the small contingent of US troops we had foolishly placed in harms way in Syria underscored the weaknesses of that body.  In their brief deliberations and emotional response they ignored the facts and fell victim to manipulation by a conflicted leadership , and base political maneuvers.

They ignored the fact that  we had illegally and covertly invaded a sovereign Syria— which heatedly objected to the UN regarding our incursion.  They ignored the Kurdish problem facing our long term and powerful NATO ally Turkey.  They ignored the realities of the geography, and geopolitics of that area that made the insertion of a Kurdish enclave on the southern border of Turkey an impossible situation which would only lead to more instability in that region.  They took to the airways to exaggerate the threat to the Kurdish minority in Syria (who immediately upon the US withdrawal allied themselves with the Syrian Defense Forces of Mr. Assad.  They exaggerated the threat of a revival of the defeated ISIS.  The ignored the fact that we inserted our troops into a conflict —engaging in a war without a vote for such from  Congress.  The only shred of legal cover for our presence there was based on a now nearly twenty-year old post 9-11 Congressional act which has nothing to do with the internal sectarian conflict fueling that civil war.  So we had no business being there. We were fighting and dying and paying for a conflict in which was no conceivable threat to us or our allies. Yet the House unbelievably —voted to continue fighting and continue keeping our young men and women in harms way and of course continuing to pay for it.

The Congressional vote underscores (several times over) the way an hysterical mob can be manipulated by an out of order leadership, biased media propagandists, war mongers, war profiteers and an unrestrained group of enraged Trump haters who would jump off a cliff if President Trump put a “do not pass” barrier across the dangerous path..

President Trump’s decision to bring troops home and stay out of “wars of choice” was what the vast majority of American voters want, what the Democrats have always supported  and what makes perfect logical foreign policy sense.

So we can thank our Founders who knew we would need an independent executive branch, which has the power to make —sometimes—unpopular but necessary decisions.

Modern circumstances make us all thank the Lord for the wisdom of the Constitution that gave us the Electoral College and a powerful Executive. We