Letter to the Editor NYT RE: “Biden Seeks Update for Much-Stretched Law That Authorizes the War on Terrorism”

Letters to the Editor The New York Times RE: “Biden Seeks Update for Much-Stretched Law That Authorizes the War on Terrorism” (News article by Charlie Savage, A13, March 6, 2021) To the Editor: Contrary to President Joe Biden’s press secretary, the Declare War Clause of the Constitution (Article I, section 8, clause 11) empowers the President to protect Americans from terrorist threats and requires ending forever unconstitutional presidential wars. Congressional authorizations for the use of force are constitutionally dubious and beside the point. The Clause, as explained at the constitutional convention, endows Congress with exclusive responsibility for initiating war, while leaving the President power to respond to sudden or imminent attacks against the United States that had already or imminently threated to break the peace. President Biden’s bombing of alleged Iranian-backed militias in Syria last month constituted an act of war under the Constitution and the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court. Mr. Biden summoned the Commander-in-Chief clause of Article 2 as legal justification. But in 2007 in an interview with Chris Matthews on NBC news, he threatened to impeach President George W. Bush if the then Commander-in-Chief bombed Iran without congressional authorization, explaining: “the president has no constitutional authority to take this nation to war against a country of 70 million people, unless we're attacked or unless there is proof that we are about to be attacked.” Sincerely, Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan and author of American Empire Before The Fall 300 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Suite 900 Washington, D.C. 20001 Phone: 202-465-8728; 703-963-4968 Email: bruce@feinpoints.com