"'Humanitarian War' is an Oxymoron"

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Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan's oldest child Casey was killed in Iraq on April 4th, 2004. Since then she has been on a mission to end the wars and hold George W. Bush accountable

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March 27th, 2011 3:44 PM

"'Humanitarian War' is an Oxymoron"

By Cindy Sheehan

The other day, I was scanning through the AM radio stations on my way to Berkeley to pick up something, when I heard a familiar voice, our old friend, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Oh)—and he didn’t sound happy. So I stopped the scan to listen.
Surprisingly, Congressman Kucinich was talking to another old “friend,” Sean Hannity of Fox News—the only thing I have to say about Sean Hannity is that I was on his TV show in NYC once and he paid for my assistant and I to fly the next day to Cuba—Sean financed a Federal Crime, but at least I have something on him, now.

Anyway, Dennis was talking to Sean about the recent US bombing of Libya and he was furious at President Obama for not consulting with Congress before this happened, (he consulted with the UN, he consulted with the Arab League, he consulted with Hillary Clinton—Secretary of State; Susan Rice—US Ambassador to the UN and Samantha Power—somebody?), but he didn’t talk to Congress—which is the governmental body under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution that has the sole power to declare war.

Not only was Dennis angry about that, he was angry that the president sent Congress a weak letter this past Monday, after the fact, that justified his actions under Article II, which outline the duties of the executive branch. Well, the Constitutional Scholar was obviously incorrect about his assessment because nowhere in Article II does it say that the president has unilateral war making powers. In fact, as Dennis pointed out, in December 2007, Obama told the Boston Globe this little inconvenient truth that has arisen like a rattlesnake to bite him in the ass with the stark contradiction between what he said before he got the nomination, to what he actually did as president:

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." Barack Obama, Boston Globe, December 20, 2007

So, I was pounding on the steering wheel, flabbergasted that for the first time in years, I was hearing something that was bold and non-partisan coming from the mouth of a Congress-critter—I have always had respect for Dennis, I have eaten cereal with him at his modest home in Cleveland and learned much from him—but I haven’t been so impressed with him since Obama has been the leader of his party. However, my respect for Dennis soared yesterday and I quickly got a hold of the producer of my radio show to see if Dennis would do me the honor of coming on to tell me and my listeners (from the far-left) how he felt and what his concerns were. I was a little nervous, because I have become persona non grata in the halls of power since I have questioned everyone in those halls, not just the R’s.

I was not only pounding the steering wheel out of exuberance that Dennis was saying these things--but because I have felt so utterly alone and thoroughly attacked for being against the Holy One's "humanitarian intervention" in Libya. I have really felt like I was on a lonely island of sanity in a world that has gone completely bonkers!

Anyway, the full interview will be on today at 2pm PDST on Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox, but I just wanted to point out a few highlights.
First of all, I think Obama is in big trouble. I don’t think he is in “impeachable” trouble, but who knows? The last time a president was impeached it was a Democrat, Clinton, during a Republican House Majority. Obama has great support from Senators like Levin of Michigan and Kerry of Massachusetts, and I doubt Obama would be convicted in the Senate—but he is in trouble.

Secondly, as I told Dennis, Sean Hannity’s agreement with Dennis and the Republican anger reeks of partisanship and Dennis, who has supported Obama in some big things I don’t agree with, lends his voice as a voice of what’s right over allegiance to political party—and with Dennis’s district being disappeared for 2012, he is taking another political risk and I admire him for that.
I also asked Dennis if he was going to change his mind and give Obama a primary challenge over this and his answer to me was: “I think someone should, but it’s not going to be me.”

I gave up on Robber Class politics a long time ago and I think that most politicians are motivated by cynicism and greed, and many of my supporters and comrades will tell me that Dennis is a shill to keep the antiwar segment of the Democratic Party tied to the party—and I think they could be correct—but Dennis will stand up for peace and against blatant power grabs no matter who is president. In fact, he and Ron Paul of Texas and Walter Jones of North Carolina (both R’s) just co-sponsored a bill to have the troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year—it failed, but it got 28 more votes than last time. It might all just be a charade, but I also know that there is no great movement of civil society pushing hard to make Congress defund the wars to end them—it’s just not there. We are failing, too.

Of course, I would be thrilled if Dennis would leave the Democratic Party and become a Green, or Independent, like Bernie Sanders of Vermont, but we need his voice where it is, for now.