President Barack Obama surprised many by seeking authorization from Congress on a possible strike on Syria. As support for the strike seems unlikely, the White House is now saying it does not need Congress’s approval.
Marvin Kalb, esteemed journalist with an award-winning, 30-year career with CBS and NBC news departments, said that every U.S. president is supposed to seek congressional approval for a declaration of war, but starting with Harry Truman’s 1950 launch of a police action in Korea came an assumption of power to wage war without it.
"Since that time, one president after another has taken the United States into war without checking with Congress," he said. "Congress had a right to declare war but never did since 1941."
He said that Obama is one of "the most reluctant warriors we’ve had in the White House" for a number of years. Yet, Kalb said he believes the president is bound by his statement of a year ago, when he declared that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would represent a "red line" that would alter the U.S. involvement.
"He now finds himself in the position of having to live up to what it is that he said, or else he loses personal credibility and the nation loses national credibility. So, there is a great deal riding on the outcome of this adventure," he said.
Kalb, a national security expert, said these types of presidential commitments are the focus of his latest book, "The Road to War: Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed," and that they generally lead us into military action without a declaration of war.
