Ron Paul Liberty Report - Weekly Update --- Congress Asleep as Biden Makes War on Yemen
Aired: 2024-01-18
Duration: 04:15


=== Congress Asleep (03:04) ===

[00:00:00]  Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the weekly report.
[00:00:04]  Congress Asleep as Biden makes war on Yemen.
[00:00:08]  Late last week, President Biden started a new U.S. war on the tiny country of Yemen.
[00:00:15]  U.S. warships and fighter jets launched more than 100 missiles at the country in a massive escalation that the administration bizarrely claimed would de-escalate tensions in the Red Sea.
[00:00:31]  Taking the U.S. to war without a congressional declaration of war is a grave crime against the Constitution.
[00:00:40]  Not only did Biden show no interest in coming to Congress for a war declaration, he didn't even ask for authorization.
[00:00:49]  Together with Washington's reliable junior partner in war, the UK, Biden attacked Yemen.
[00:00:57]  It seems the U.S. administration consulted more with the UK government than with the U.S. Congress on the attacks.
[00:01:06]  But that's not really the worst part.
[00:01:09]  Far from taking action against this illegal war by an out-of-control president, Congress as a body couldn't even see fit to criticize the administration.
[00:01:21]  On the contrary, congressional leadership in both bodies actually applauded President Biden for brazenly violating U.S. law.
[00:01:31]  House Speaker Mike Johnson not only praised the illegal move, he urged the president to go further and confront Iran.
[00:01:40]  He said, This action by the U.S. and British forces is long overdue, and we must hope these operations indicate a true shift in the Biden administration's approach to Iran and its proxies that are engaging in such evil and wreaking such havoc.
[00:02:00]  To their credit, several members of Biden's own party joined with a handful of Republican colleagues to denounce a U.S. president taking the country to war without the authority to do so.
[00:02:14]  California Rep Kahana was one of the first Democrats to criticize Biden's war-making, stating, The president's strikes in Yemen are unconstitutional.
[00:02:26]  For over a month, he consulted an international coalition to plan them, but never came to Congress to seek authorization as required by Article I of the Constitution.
[00:02:40]  The framers of the Constitution gave war-making powers to Congress because they understood that leaving such power in the hands of one person was a recipe for disaster.
[00:02:53]  The role of the president is to make the case for a war declaration.
[00:02:58]  Congress deliberates and either authorizes or refuses the proposed action.

=== Yemen's Resilience (01:10) ===

[00:03:05]  Washington has obviously not learned the lessons of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and all the other failed U.S. interventions over the past 20 years.
[00:03:16]  Why do we keep losing wars?
[00:03:18]  Because we do not go into wars according to the U.S. Constitution.
[00:03:23]  This war will be no different.
[00:03:26]  The Houthis in Yemen withstood years of attacks from the Saudis using the latest U.S. weaponry and came out on top.
[00:03:35]  In short, it was never our war, but now with this attack, Biden has made it our war.
[00:03:44]  So, we are left with the strange and sad spectacle of Congress asleep at the wheel as a Defense Secretary launches military strikes from his hospital bed in the service of a president clearly not in his prime.
[00:04:01]  All this in pursuit of a policy that makes no sense and is leading the U.S. closer to a major war in the Middle East that will only harm, not serve, the U.S. national interests.