[FREE] stratfor (fwd)

Jim Dixon jdd at vbc.net
Mon Oct 1 07:30:13 PDT 2001


On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> On Sun, Sep 30, 2001 at 04:11:21PM -0400, James B. DiGriz wrote:
> > What I find interesting is how we can have a war without a Congressional 
> >     declaration, which out of practical if not legal necessity requires 
> > something at least approximating a foreign power as the enemy. It would 
> > be extremely helpful if there were some overt state action or at least a 
> > smoking gun to publicly identify such party.
> 
> Call me unusually hawkish, but I don't see why that's necessary. Let's
> say our fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor 60 years ago -- but by an
> enemy who did not paint his flag on his aircraft. Congress could, and
> should, declare war on an unidentified enemy.
> 
> I admit the situation is not as clear here, since generally only nationstates
> can raise air armadas and non-nationstate organizations could have trained
> the Hijacking 19, but perhaps the parallels are nevertheless sufficient.
> Think of it as an "unidentified co-conspirator" approach.

Better parallels: the Barbary pirates, against which the US sent a
fleet in the early 1800s, or the US Army's incursion into Mexico 
under Gen Pershing in the early 1900s.  You can dispatch troops
without a nation-state as the target.

--
Jim Dixon                  VBCnet GB Ltd           http://www.vbc.net
tel +44 117 929 1316                             fax +44 117 927 2015





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