they're building up to that, you need to change public sentiment. Right now Iraq and Afghanistan are fresh in our minds so we need to be "convinced" so to speak about invading.

amazing how quickly the public forgets about war....just stay occupied with your memes,TMZ, and Kylie posts....

Trump has the authority, not saying he should (same with Bush & Obama), but he has the authority to bomb a country without Congressional approval.

Not according to the constitution

I guess you're right, I'm still looking but I thought this was worked out from a legal standpoint under Bush and expanded by Obama. The War Resolution seem to be the main excuse, although it's been trampled on by Bill Clinton, Bush, Obama & Hillary and now Trump. Especially the party where you have to provide 48hr notice to congress. Seems like no one has ever been held accountable for itt would be nice if they were.

Exactly, it's "legal" in the sense that taking military action without Congressional approval has been so commonplace for the last 70 years that it has created a de facto political reality where the explicit demand for Congressional approval may as well not even exist in the Constitution. Pretty infuriating, really.

Pretty infuriating, really.

It really has been. I've been speaking out against the powers the executive branch has been granting itself since Bush, then under Obama, and now in the hands of Trump. This situation is literally what I have been saying the whole time, "You may like your guy in office, but what if the next guy is out of his mind?".

What really scares me, is Trump just learned he can bomb a country at anytime. He just pulled the trigger and may have realized the power at his finger tips.

Dude congress hasn't declared war sine 1941. That didn't stop us from going into korea, Vietnam (and Laos and Cambodia), Afghanistan, and Iraq. Any others I'm missing?

I love how it's not considered a declaration of war when we bomb the crap out of someone.

Just some random conflicts that came to mind- not in chronological order; Grenada, Panama, Libya, Somali, Yugoslavia/Bosnia/Herzegovina, all of Central America at various points, and various African countries that I can't spell or remember.

I mean, it is. The rest of the world knows your wars are illegal.

I'm not following your train of thought now. "My" wars? The rest of the world knows the conflicts were illegal?

I think it's a matter of perspective on the justification for the conflicts. South Koreans in the 50s would never have called US involvement in their war illegal.

Presidents have some room to move under the War Powers Act. Only Congress can declare war or authorize use of military force. As long as congress approves, it is not illegal in the US.

Now I'm sure the Taliban felt the US invasion of Afghanistan was illegal. I also assume Saddam felt the same way and let's not forget what happened in Libya.

Not your wars personally. I mean invasions -- such as Iraq -- that the majority of the international community either decried as illegal (by the UN) and/or declined to participate in.

I mean, Iraq was a clusterfuck and certainly one of the biggest lies America was sold on in recent history.

The thing is I thought we already were drone bombing Syria under Obama ?

We were.

Muscle flexing for all to see. Show of force.

This is just the MSM and shills playing on your fears. Someone has finally pointed it out! Yay we have been killing them for a very long time and no this is not a war we just started.

I'll take a shot at it.

Drone strikes are seen as surgical strikes against specific targets with the intent of minimal collateral damage and hopefully 0 civilian casualties. To this degree they're acceptable to the American public, mainly because they're portrayed by the media as only being used to take out targets using unconventional warfare(terrorists) as there are no concrete military targets available.

50 tomahawk middles launched at an airbase is also a surgical strike. But it's targeting a conventional force, and does not minimize collateral damage. In other words; an act of war.

lol congressional vote. We don't do that whole thing anymore.

To answer your question though: yes it is illegal.

People are screaming WW3 like the U.S. hasn't been bombing Syria for years. The Obama administration authorized over 26,000 bombings in 2016 alone people!! You're all letting the media sway you!! Why do you think CNN was pushing so hard to wage war and when Trump takes action he's ridiculed?? THE MEDIA IS THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON PEOPLE

Yea tbh I think this sub is being brigaded hard right now. We have been bombing them like you said for years. This whole thing wont even be in the news in 2 weeks tops...

Wait until they find "irrefutable" evidence it wasn't Assad in a few days. Trump's fucked.

Fucked about what? You dont even know who was bombed yet... Not to mention we conducted 26,000 airstrikes on Syria just last year alone...

I mean if it comes out Assad wasn't responsible. This hasn't gelled quite for me yet all the way, but that's my prediction. This is how they hang Trump politically

the thing is we did not bomb Assad... We hit a chache that for all we know is Isis... This is what happens when you fall for the MSM fake news and think we're going into ww3

I'm not worried about ww3. Literally has nothing to do with what I'm talking about.

By those rules, America has only ever been in 5 wars.

(Spanish American, Mexican American, 1812, WW1, WW2)

Just need congress to declare war. They have 100 ways to wage notwar wars.

The Constitution is just a piece of paper at this point. The founding principals of our nation have been abandoned. We are fucked.

"Doesn't matter anymore" is right, basically the way around that is they call it something else. I guess the founders should have spelled out "we cannot attack unless we have declared war"

amazing how quickly the public forgets about war....just stay occupied with your memes,TMZ, and Kylie posts....

Yea tbh I think this sub is being brigaded hard right now. We have been bombing them like you said for years. This whole thing wont even be in the news in 2 weeks tops...

I mean if it comes out Assad wasn't responsible. This hasn't gelled quite for me yet all the way, but that's my prediction. This is how they hang Trump politically