It's still an act of war, and one that could escalate to a full scale war. If another country bombed one of our air bases we would definitely consider it to be an act of war. I get that it was inconsequential in that the air base was up and running the very next day, but the point is that it is illegal for the president to make the unilateral decision to carry out a military strike on another country when there is not an imminent threat the nation. We're essentially giving a single person the power to start world war III. If the president can unilaterally attack other nations, then there are no legal berries preventing him from bombing say Russia or China. No individual in the US government is supposed to have that kind of power, which is why the constitution and the war powers resolution limits these powers to congress.

He is supposed to notify congress first, not Russia (who again, is Syria's greatest ally)

This post was edited by TCassa89 on Apr 8 2017 03:16pm

I also cannot stress enough that this was not a surprise attack, the US had notified Russia before the attack, and according to the pentagon, they did so as "precautions to minimise risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield”

This was not a surprise attack, and it was not a crippling attack, as the airfield was up and running the very next day. The purpose of this strike was to send a message to the Syrian government that the US is willing to use military force. We could have just as easily sent this message via congressional authorization, which would have also been law abiding. By allowing the president to carry out military strikes against another nation when there is no imminent threat, we are essentially giving a single person the power to start World War III. We have checks and balances in our constitution for acts of war that we are outright ignoring.

did Leonidas need the approval of the senate to send 300 Spartan warriors to fight the Persians?



because that is ALL that matters to me....

Not quite true. The president needs Congressional approval to declare WAR on Syria.

He does not need it to...fire a shot across their bow, so to speak.

The point was that trump is once again a liar

I wonder if Assad/ISIS got congressional approval before killing children.

Trump killed children with his first mission.

Just fulfilling his campaign promise.

Eggs/Omlette

Almost like we should hold ourselves to higher standards than terrorists