So, Europe doesn't need petroleum to keep from going dark, but they absolutely do need it to keep from going cold. Not a lot of electrically heated homes in the EU, apparently.
I saw something earlier this week saying about 2/3 of the oil Europe uses is for transport and 1% for power gen. Wish I had read it more closely to see if they said what percentage of transport relied on oil. I assume it's the vast majority though. Natural gas pipelines for heat, which I'm not sure is affected by the Iran situation or not.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
@bradstevens I agree we haven't, and why I praise 41 and 43. They did it right. It is why I have long condemned the Sept 11 resolution allowing a president powers carte blanche.
Our system is designed with checks and balances. Congress doesn't want to go on record so they don't apply the checks and balances. That is wrong, be they Democrats (Bosnia is a great example) or Republicans (today).
I am decidedly not arguing Congress has to appose the action. If they decide to vote for it, so be it. But they have to vote. But they know they will lose votes, so they become cowards. Which is symbolic of all our problems. Can't solve Social Security, we might lose votes, Medicare, healthcare, debt. It is all the same root problem.
Evidently Trump officially notified Congress on March 3 so he has 60 days to have them deployed +30 days to then remove them if Congress doesn’t authorize the invasion or declare warWhat is still missing from this being a war subject to the War Powers Act?
From CNN, a stance I respect, he supports the war and wants a declaration:
Republican Sen. John Curtis on Friday said he “cannot support funding for further military operations” in the conflict with Iran unless Congress formally declares war.
“While I support maintaining our readiness and replenishing stockpiles, I cannot support funding for further military operations without a formal declaration of war from Congress,” Curtis said on X.
The Utah senator said that while he stands by President Donald Trump’s military campaign in the Middle East, “We must be clear-eyed about history and the Constitution.”
I don’t think Trump wants to go past the 60 day window anyway.
what I don’t like about a formal declaration of war is that unless it is officially ended, it could go on indefinitely, allowing future presidents to do anything because we are at war.
@hhlurker do we have the only choice as to win it ends? Say Iran continues firing at US interests in the region? I think we haven't considered that.
As to committing forces, do they have to be over/in Iran to be committed? Is firing missiles from sea committed?
This fits any definition of a war. Congress should sack up and vote. Why are we covering for cowards. They should take a stand, should we be there or not. It isn't hard.
Frankly I am not sure we shouldn't have acted but I am not given the intel briefings and the public argument isn't effective.
I personally have surely thought about Trump saying we’re done and then both Iran and Israel simply continuing to fight each other at the very least if not US base is in the area.
I was also trying to interpret the language to see exactly what it means to deploy our forces because on March 3, I don’t think we had done anything except air attacks and perhaps missile attacks from a distance. So troops on the ground is clearly not a requirement.
Another point that I haven’t seen raised is that Trump could theoretically end the current excursion and declare it ended and notify Congress and then simply start the next day and within 48 hours once again notify Congress. Rinse and repeat…
(you might’ve mentioned this idea I can’t remember)
But again, I don’t like the idea of a DOW necessarily because that would require a complex conclusion to undeclare the state of war I think, involving both Iran and the United States.
I prefer the idea of the United States, stopping our attacks on Iran, declaring our mission complete, and simply telling Iran that closing the Strait is an act against the entire world and not against Israel so that if they continue to keep it closed, they are committing an act of war against the entire world.
I think that might be the fastest way to get it opened up again interestingly enough.
Bear in mind that closing Hormuz might affect Israel economically less than any other country in the world.
Trump to Iran: “We’re done. Israel is your problem but keeping Hormuz closed has no leverage over Israel whatsoever. They don’t care. The rest of the world does care.“
@hhlurker the rest of the world is pushing for a resolution but China and Russia have their own interests
Our war record since 1945 has had some Ls. If we forced votes, real votes, maybe we never would have gone in. Or maybe we would have clarified what victory is before going in. Making Afghanistan a quasi democracy was always going to be a fool's errand. Vietnam was a fool's errand
There are a couple of posters I often disagree with but they are right, we use the military too often. Not every time is wrong. But somehow it needs reigned in.
I’m a pacifist at heart. No argument from me. Theoretically, POTUS should have gotten congressional approval. But here we are so how forward?@hhlurker the rest of the world is pushing for a resolution but China and Russia have their own interests
Our war record since 1945 has had some Ls. If we forced votes, real votes, maybe we never would have gone in. Or maybe we would have clarified what victory is before going in. Making Afghanistan a quasi democracy was always going to be a fool's errand. Vietnam was a fool's errand
There are a couple of posters I often disagree with but they are right, we use the military too often. Not every time is wrong. But somehow it needs reigned in.
Two different discussions.
I’m a pacifist at heart. No argument from me. Theoretically, POTUS should have gotten congressional approval. But here we are so how forward?
Two different discussions.
I was just watching Smerconish from this morning. He doesn't think we should have gone in, but now that we are in we cannot leave until we have all uranium. There is no doubt now, if Iran develops something after this they will certainly use it.