PRESIDENT TRUMP SEEKS TO CIRCUMVENT THE WAR POWERS ACT ON IRAN

Written by Michael Thervil

PRESIDENT TRUMP SEEKS TO CIRCUMVENT THE WAR POWER ACT | PRESIDENT TRUMP | PHOTO BY WILL OLIVER—EPA/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

[War Powers Act Iran Trump] While there is such a thing as micro-aggressions, it appears that there’s also such a thing as a “Micro-War”. Highlighting this point, yesterday the Trump Administration put forth the argument that the current war in Iran has effectively come to an end. Geopolitical Analysts the world over are calling the end of the Trump’s micro war as nothing both more than semantics and as a way to circumvent the American War Resolution (Act) which was started in in 1973 and it was created to "insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities”. In other words, the American President doesn't have the sole power to declare war without the “collective judgement” of the American Congress.

While it should be noted that beyond any American President not having the sole authority or “power” to declare war, there is a 60-day time limit on how long an American President can export military aggression on another country. Many Geopolitical Analysts are taking issue with the legal loophole that has been created and exploited by several American Presidents to date. The legal loophole allows American Presidents to deploy American Military forces towards another country for 60 days under an assumed operational name with the promise of achieving various operational objectives.  Then call an end to that military campaign before the 60-day limit is reached or expired. When that previous operation is "terminated", the sitting American President creates another military campaign under a different name and objectives to continue its military aggression towards the target country.

For the Trump Administration the perpetual pausing and reengaging of military aggression toward Iran allows it to do two things: the first being that by the Americans engaging in what they believe is the destabilizing of Iran; however, the opposite appears to be true as Iran has not been destabilized. Secondly, it allows the Americans to slow down and asserts some kind of control regarding the tempo of its war of aggression towards Iran to control the expenditure of its weapons as America has already expended roughly 40% of its weapon stockpiles fighting Iran. It should be noted that the people of Iran are being galvanized in favor of the Iranian government and thus making it harder for the Americans to affect the morale of the Iranian people.

Currently, the Trump Administration is pushing the narrative that they have “won” its war against Iran due to Iran entertaining ceasefire talks. This for many Geopolitical Analysts is a half-truth, as the truth as they see it is that Iran is only engaging in the entertaining of a ceasefire so that they can strategically place themselves in a position to counter any anticipated moves on the battlefield with the Americans. The Iranian government has previously expressed that they will not trust Americans and that for the war to end, the Americans must agree to all their terms within their proposed 10-point ceasefire plan.