As the Trump train wreck hurtles toward an impeachment trial in the Senate, keep your eyes peeled for more military distractions like the assassination of Iran’s General Qassim Suleimani. Trump will no doubt continue to take the Commander-In-Whatever-I-Want-To-Do approach to executive power.
Our current president isn’t the first one to take an expansive view of executive power, particularly when it comes to lobbing a bomb here and there. After Nixon’s secret bombing campaign in Cambodia, Congress tried to rein in future presidents who reveled in their Commander-In-Chief title a little too much.
The framers made a point of keeping the power to wage war split between two branches of government. That tension is intentional so a single individual can’t take the United States to war. Well, we know how well that works. Here’s hoping we aren’t distracted from impeachment by any more tail-wagging.