Dear Democratic Colleague:
As we mark five years of war in Iraq, I have become increasingly concerned
that the President may possibly take unilateral, preemptive military action
against Iran. During the last seven years, the Bush Administration has
exercised unprecedented assertions of Executive Branch power and shown
an unparalleled aversion to the checks and balances put in place by the
Constitution¹s framers. The letter that
follows asks President Bush to seek congressional authorization before
launching any possible military strike against Iran and affirms Senator
Biden¹s statement last year that impeachment proceedings should be
considered if the President fails to do so. I hope that you
will join me in calling on the President to respect Congress¹ exclusive
power to declare war. To sign the letter below, please contact the Judiciary
Committee staff at 225-3951.
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr. Chairman
May 8, 2008
The Honorable George W. Bush President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing to register our strong opposition
to possible unilateral, preemptive military action against other nations
by the Executive Branch without Congressional authorization. As
you know, Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress
the power ³to declare war,² to lay and collect taxes to ³provide
for the common defense² and general welfare of the United States,
to ³raise and support armies,² to ³provide and maintain
a navy,² to ³make rules for the regulation for the land and
naval forces,² to ³provide for calling forth the militia to
execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions,²
to ³provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia,²
and to ³make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution
... all ... powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the
United States.²
Congress is also given exclusive power over the purse. The Constitution
says, ³No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence
of appropriations made by law.² By contrast, the sole war powers
granted to the Executive Branch through the President can be found in
Article II, Section 2, which states, ³The President shall be the
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the
Militia of the several States, when called into actual Service of the
United States.² Nothing in the history of the ³Commander-in-Chief²
clause suggests that the authors of the provision intended it to grant
the Executive Branch the authority to engage U.S. forces in military action
whenever and wherever it sees fit without any prior authorization from
Congress. In our view, the founders of our country intended this power
to allow the President to repel sudden attacks and immediate threats,
not to unilaterally launch, without congressional approval, preemptive
military actions against foreign countries.
As former Republican Representative Mickey Edwards recently wrote, ³[t]he
decision to go to war ... is the single most difficult choice any public
official can be called upon to make. That is precisely why the nation¹s
Founders, aware of the deadly wars of Europe, deliberately withheld from
the executive branch the power to engage in war unless such action was
expressly approved by the people themselves, through their representatives
in Congress.²1 Members of Congress, including the signatories
of this letter, have previously expressed concern about this issue.
On April 25, 2006, sixty-two Members of Congress joined in a bipartisan
letter that called on you to seek congressional approval before making
any preemptive military strikes against Iran.2 Fifty-seven Members of
Congress have co-sponsored H. Con. Res. 33, which expresses the sense
of Congress that the President should not initiate military action against
Iran without first obtaining authorization from Congress.3 Our concerns
in this area have been heightened by more recent events. The resignation
in mid-March of Admiral William J. ³Fox² Fallon from the head
of U.S. Central Command, which was reportedly linked to a magazine article
that portrayed him as the only person who might stop your Administration
from waging preemptive war against Iran,4 has renewed widespread concerns
that your Administration is unilaterally planning for military action
against that country.
This is despite the fact that the December 2007 National Intelligence
Estimate concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in
the fall of 2003, a stark reversal of previous Administration assessments.5
As we and others have continued to review troubling legal memoranda and
other materials from your Administration asserting the power of the President
to take unilateral action, moreover, our concerns have increased still
further. For example, although federal law is clear that proceeding under
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) ³shall be the exclusive
means by which electronic surveillance² can be conducted within the
U.S. for foreign intelligence purposes, 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(f), the Justice
Department has asserted that the National Security Agency¹s warrantless
wiretapping in violation of FISA is ³supported by the President¹s
well-recognized inherent constitutional authority as Commander in Chief
and sole organ for the Nation in foreign affairs².6
As one legal expert has explained, your Administration¹s ³preventive
paradigm² has asserted ³unchecked unilateral power² by
the Executive Branch and violated ³universal prohibitions on torture,
disappearance, and the like.²7 Late last
year, Senator Joseph Biden stated unequivocally that ³the president
has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran, and if he does, as Foreign
Relations Committee chairman, I will move to impeach² the president.
8 We agree with Senator Biden, and it is our view that if you
do not obtain the constitutionally required congressional authorization
before launching preemptive military strikes against Iran or any other
nation, impeachment proceedings should be pursued. Because of these concerns,
we request the opportunity to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss
these matters. As we have recently marked the fifth year since the invasion
of Iraq, and the grim milestone of 4,000 U.S. deaths in Iraq, your Administration
should not unilaterally involve this country in yet another military conflict
that promises high costs to American blood and treasure. Sincerely,
1. Mickey Edwards, Dick Cheney¹s Error, Wash.
Post, March 22, 2008, at A13. 2. Letter from Rep. Peter DeFazio, Rep.
John Conyers, Jr., and 60 other Members of Congress, to President George
W. Bush (Apr. 25, 2006) (on file with the Committee on the Judiciary).
3. H. Con. Res. 33, 110th Cong. (2008) 4. Thomas E. Ricks, Top U.S. Officer
in Mideast Resigns, Wash. Post, March 12, 2008, at A1. 5. Dafna Linzer
and Joby Warrick, U.S. Finds That Iran Halted Nuclear Arms Bid in 2003,
Wash. Post, Dec. 4, 2007, at A1. 6. Department of Justice, Legal Authorities
Supporting the Activities of the National Secuirty Agency Described by
the President, Jan. 19, 2006 at 1. 7. David Cole, Less Safe, Less Free:
Why America is Losing the War on Terror, 2007 at 2. 8. Adam Leach, Biden:
Impeachment if Bush Bombs Iran, PORTSMOUTH HERALD, Nov. 29, 2007.
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