Abraham Lincoln: pre-emptive wars (Iraq, Iran) are lies, “war at pleasure,” impoverish the US

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In our third consideration of Abraham Lincoln’s wisdom applied to current US wars (first and second):

A letter to his law partner:

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, — "I see no probability of the British invading us"; but he will say to you, "Be silent: I see it, if you don't."

The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.

In our current US wars of invasion, our own government investigations have revealed the exact evidence backing claims that these are defensive wars for our national security. We now know from the evidence that all of these claims were not only false, but known to be false at the time they were told to the American people and Congress.

We also have lying rhetoric for an offensive war in Iran, propagandized as “pre-emptive” defense, despite its illegality in the clear letter and intent of the law, and easily understood through analogy of the laws governing an individual’s use of self-defense on the street.

Let’s embrace the courageous words of truth from Mr. Lincoln, and encourage ourselves to act against these treasonous and cowardly wars that have so-far killed over 4,000 American troops. They echo the advice of our Founding Fathers.

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