Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Thursday, February 15, 2007 12:05:02 PM
This is the third essay on the Democrat plan to
Force a Slow End to the War and how to stop it. Part one is
here, and part two is
here.
One part of Murtha's plan, as outlined by Politico is:
In addition, Murtha, acting with the backing of the House Democratic leadership, will seek to limit the time and number of deployments by soldiers, Marines and National Guard units to Iraq, making it tougher for Pentagon officials to find the troops to replace units that are scheduled to rotate out of the country.
There is a little problem with this part of Murtha's plan called the Constitution. The President as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces can simply ignore these restrictions. While that might cause a Constitutional crisis, it is very unlikely that the President, or for that matter any President would want Congress to believe it had such a power.
Almost exactly a century ago, President Teddy Roosevelt wanted to send the Great White Fleet around the world. Congress objected. Roosevelt told Congress that he had the money and the authority to send the fleet half way, and if it wanted it back, it would have to appropriate the money to get it back. End of argument.