6-23-25 - 8am - Authorization for Use of Military Force

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yo, Welcome back, Dragon. I knew you were back the
minute I heard the pump for music. Have a good one, buddy.
Oh you too, Michael.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
If you knew what kind of day I was having
right now, you'd be a little nicer to me.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
No, no, man, yeah, right right.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Uh, let's go to the well. Let me Just after
the attacks of nine to eleven, Congress passed and Bush
signed the Congressional Authorization to Use Military Force an au
m F. And I was rereading it during the break,
well sort of during the break. I was doing something

(00:44):
else too, but I wasn't going to read the whereasses,
but I am, so turn your ears on and listen.
Whereas on September eleven, two thousand and one, acts of
treacherous violence were committed against the United States and its citizens,

(01:07):
And whereas such acts render it both necessary and appropriate
that the United States exercise its right to self defense
and to protect United States citizens, both at home and abroad.
And whereas in light of the threat to the national

(01:28):
security and the foreign policy of the United States posed
by these graves acts of violence, and whereas such acts
continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to national
security and foreign policy of the United States, and whereas

(01:49):
the President has authority under the Constitution to take action
to deter and prevent acts of international national terrorism against
the United States. Now, therefore be it resolved, and it's
called the title is Authorization for Use of Military Force.

(02:12):
And this is section two that they're referring to. Section
two A in general, that the President is authorized to
use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations,
or persons that he, the President determines planned, authorized, committed,

(02:38):
or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September eleven,
two thousand and one, or harbored such organizations or persons,
in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism
against the United States by such nations, organizations, or persons.

(03:01):
Section B specific statutory authority consistent with Section eight a
one of the War Powers Resolution. That Congress declares that
this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within
the meaning of Section five B of the War Powers Resolution.
So it authorizes the use of force in order to

(03:26):
prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United
States by such nations or anybody that they're harboring, or
any organization or any group that harbored or was some
even peripherally involved in the attacks of nine to eleven. Now,
the whereas clauses specifically reference the President having the authority

(03:48):
from Congress under the Constitution to take action to specifically
determined prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States. Now,
it's not a heavy lift to string together a line
of couple more actors, individuals, organization, state, actors, all who
played a role either large or small in the nine

(04:12):
to eleven attack, and that includes Iran and the IRGC,
the Revolutionary Guard. Now, while the language of the AUMF
does refer to the Planning Authorizing Committee and aiding the
attacks themselves, the language then goes on to go further.

(04:32):
It covers nations that harbored organizations are persons. That language
is not focused only on past activities. It contemplates, if
you understand how to read legislation statutes, it contemplates actions
taken on behalf of those organizations or those persons anytime

(04:54):
in the future. There's no limit on this. There's no
time frame between now and you know, between September eleven,
two thousand and one and September eleven, two thousand and ten. No,
So that places all such individuals, all the organizations, all

(05:17):
the nation states at risk for use of military force
in order to prevent any future actions. Again, I'm just
trying to emphasize that the AUMF is forward looking too,
so Iran's belligerence and actually they're over hostile acts that

(05:40):
are directed at this country is a matter of historical
record going back forty six years. I you know, I
guess just I'm a political science nerd, weirdo. I remember
precisely where I was when the news broke the Iranians

(06:01):
taking the downfall of the shaw and the taking of
the hostages at the embassy in Tehran. I'm precisely where
I was because I knew it was a BFD. So
this record a belligerence against US goes back forty six years,
beginning with that takeover of the US embassy, which is,

(06:22):
by the way, let me emphasize, let me remind you
an American embassy, any country's embassy, but our embassies on
foreign soil is sovereign US territory under international law and
stretching through various terrist proxy attacks and even direct Iranian
military strikes at US interests and personnel around the world.

(06:46):
Retaliation is authorized by the AUMF. So let's go through
the catalog to some of the acts that I've made
a list of of Iran's history of targeting Americans. Do
you target an American because they're an American, You're targeting

(07:07):
all Americans. Go back to nineteen seventy nine the hostage crisis,
said the US Embassy on sovereign American soil. They took
sixty six Americans, held them for four hundred and forty
four days by Iranian students that were back by then
comedy common a commin A Kmanee was the one. Then

(07:31):
nineteen eighty three US embassy bombing in Beirut, seventeen American
Marines killed, oh by the precursor to Hesbilah, the Islamic Jihad,
and it was done with Iranian support. Nineteen eighty three,

(07:53):
that was the embassy. This is the Marine Barracks bombing.
Two hundred and forty one US servicemen, primarily Rings killed
by a Hesbalal truck bomb backed again by the Iranians IRGC.
A year later, nineteen eighty four, our embassy annex bombing

(08:14):
happened in Beirut. Two Americans killed by Hesbela with Iranian backing.
Nineteen ninety six. Remember the Kobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.
Nineteen US airmen killed by Hesbala a Hijad with Iranian support.
Nineteen ninety eight. US embassy bombings in Kenya, Tanzania. Twelve

(08:35):
Americans killed by al Qaeda with Hesbela and Iranian tactical support.
Two thousand and one through twenty twenty just continuous ongoing
attacks on US forces in Afghanistan. Thirty plus US personnel
killed or injured by the Taliban al Qaeda with Iranian
eight from two thousand and three to twenty eleven. Attacks

(08:57):
on US forces in Iraq one hundreds killed by Shea
militias using what Iranians supplied devices. Two thousand and seven.
Kabala Provincial Headquarters raid in Iraq. Five US soldiers killed
by the the the Revolutionary Guard CUDS forces They're operatives.

(09:21):
Twenty nineteen a rocket attack on the Kwan Air Base
in Iraq. A US contractor killed again by iramback kathayap
Has the Law Ballistic missile attack on Alissad Air Base
in Iraq. One hundred plus US personnel injured by a
direct Iranian missile strike. Twenty eleven, Remember the plot to

(09:44):
assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington disrupted IRGC linked plan
that was targeting on US soil. Twenty twenty one, the
plot to kidnaped Mashi on the JAT in New York,
the Revolutionary Guard direct to this team against an Iranian
American journalist that was foiled by US last year. We

(10:07):
know the murder for hire plot targeting Donald Trump and
others linked all back by the IRGC, disrupted on the
American soil. You know, we spent I think it was
like some two million dollars a month. Now, whether it's
ongoing or not, I don't know, but we were spending
some two million dollars a month to provide security because

(10:29):
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Advisor, and
former UN Ambassador John Bolton and others are on a
kill list. Donald Trump's on a kill list. So all
of those things that puts Iran as a nation state

(10:50):
within the coverage of the two thousand and one a UMF.
Iran has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of
US military person They've destroyed US property around the world
through their own proxies, as well as the military aid
in the training is given to belligerent forces engaged in
wartime hostilities with the United States. For example, the Taliban

(11:16):
so Iran's continued development of materials for a nuke, as
well as delivery capacity that could hit the United States
makes it a valid target target pursuant to the AUMF
to prevent future terrorist attacks against this country by Iran.

(11:39):
The justification was enforced the past weekend, today, tomorrow, and
every day thereafter until the Iranian military forces are no
longer a threat to our national interests as contemplated by
Congress and reflected in the AUMF which Congress passed. Now,

(12:02):
pursuant to Article one, Section eight clause two of the
US Constitution, Congress has the express and the exclusive power
to declare war. Now, because that is true, there is
no judicial review with respect to the format or the
content of any such declaration. Congress is the sole authority

(12:26):
on what form the declaration may take and what content
is warranted under the circumstances of any given conflict. Now,
I've seen conservative people talk about wait a minute. Article one,
section eight clause two of the Constitution gives Congress the
express and exclusive power to declare war and it either

(12:48):
means something or it doesn't mean something. That shows me
a fundamental misunderstanding of Article one, Section eight clause too,
because once again, if you go back to the whereas
is in the AUMF, they recognize their own authority, and

(13:08):
this is them exercising that authority. So when you have
and look, I got I know Thomas Massey. I respect
Thomas Massey, we're acquaintances. But I think he's totally misguided here.
And let's think through before I go on about the AUMF.

(13:33):
Let's think through about he and roe Conna's demand that
Congress reconvene and vote on a declaration of war. Let's
imagine all of the ramifications of that one. Let's say

(13:53):
that they actually declare war on Iran. It's a simple
resolution one or two whereases and then one primary clause
that says the United States hereby declares war on the
Islamic State of Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary State of Iran,
I think is the technical name. All right, Democrats, Republicans,

(14:22):
what are you asking for? Are you asking for a
regime change? Are you asking for an invasion? Are you
actually asking for a full scale war in the Middle
East against the Iranians. I don't think you understand what
you're asking for now. They may be trying to call

(14:43):
some bluff too. Oh, let's convene everybody and then let's
end up voting down a war declaration. All right, I
think that's what would really happen. The aum F would
still stand now. If the debate is that we want

(15:05):
Congress to reconvene so that we can rework or rescind
the two thousand and one Authorization for the Use of
Military Force, then go have that debate. But your debate
is a day, eight and a dollar short because it
existed and was the force of law when Trump attacked

(15:28):
those nuke sites in the story. In the story, Congress
passed that AUMF in two thousand and one. My old
boss signed it, and it has never been rescinded. It
is good law today, and Trump had all the authority
he needed to conduct the strike on the Iran nuclear

(15:51):
facilities pursuing to the terms of the AUMF. So all
of these people screaming and hollering about, oh my gosh,
we can't be doing us we have the specific authorization
to do it, And what is it that you're really
wanting because I think what you're I don't think you

(16:11):
understand what you're doing. I think you're playing a political
game if you're serious about limiting the president's authority to
protect this nation. Look, you go back and you read
the debates about the clause, about the declaration of war clause.

(16:32):
There was a lot of discussion about the necessity of
the president to be able to protect the national security.
They didn't use the term national security, but to protect
the sovereignty of the United States. But they didn't want
to have one individual to have the power to go
to war, as they understood the war that they had

(16:53):
just fought, which was nation against nation, which was army
against army, and in I guess you could call it
an invasion of this country by the Red Coats, although
we'd already declared our independence. So the war clause in

(17:15):
the Constitution is what we did in World War Two
when we specifically declared war. Look, FDR was already using
lynd Lee's we were already arming the Brits, we were
already loaning them ships and munitions and everything. We were

(17:36):
actively engaged in World War two before Pearl Harbor and
before Congress declared war on Germany and Japan. So one,
I don't think people understand their history. Two, I don't
think they understand the Constitution, and that Congress has already
exercised their power under the Constitution by authorizing the UMF.

(18:02):
So you can have that philosolving the debate all you want.
I'm just telling you, as a lawyer, and as a
lawyer understands the Constitution, you've already You've already done what
your job is, Congress, So shut up.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Insteaday, don't forget when the Iranian shot old Doc Brown
and Marty McFly got it on camera. They've been terrorizing
us for years. Nothing over there, nothing, well, you know

(18:37):
what I'm dealing with over here.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
That is true. So I was trying to text somebody
that give the in some advice on how to take you.
We've had a death in the family. Let's just put
it on the table. We've had a death in the family,
and I'm trying to deal with that in the middle
of the program. So something about.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Doc Brown got shot by Iranian terrorists from the movie
The Future.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Okay, all right, And what's so? Oh, so I should
have included that on my list, Yes, exactly, Okay, Okay,
all right, yeah, I'll I'll accept that. Yeah, I'll accept that.
All right. All right, now, let me get my thoughts together.
The next phase of this conversation I wanted to have today,

(19:21):
and then if I if I can get it fish,
we're gonna move on something else in the next hour.
But we'll see. So the two when Trump said, you know,
you've got two weeks, well it turned out it was
only two days. His Let's put it this way the

(19:43):
way the White the White the way the White House
describes Trump took decisive military action on Iran without getting
bogged down in another long drawn out, convoluted you know,
forever wars they're calling it in the Middle East. There
will be no regime change, as obviously I think Benjaminnett
and y'a who wants, nor will there be US boots

(20:07):
on Iranian soil. Trump talked about that in an interview
with Sean Hannity over the weekend and added that all
of the Iranian sites targeted were completely destroyed. Well, we're
still waiting to see the battle damage assessments to see
how badly they were destroyed, whether they were obliterated or not.
Whoever's telling you one thing or another unless they have

(20:29):
a clearance and they've been briefed on it. Nobody really knows.
But the point that we need to focus on is
that our abilities, our capabilities were never in dispute. The
question wasn't whether the United States could bomb buildings both
above and below the ground, but whether this bombing was

(20:52):
the right way to address the Iranian nuke issue. I
was just fascinated by all the armchair warrior on cable
TV gloting about how great the operation turned out and
how resolute Trump proved to be, but none appear particularly
interested in the first, second, and third order effects of

(21:14):
the decision. I started out the program outlining that the
big question is what what I refer to is day two.
Were maybe in day three or whatever, but the day after,
maybe that's a better phrase. The day after I gloat

(21:34):
about call me an armshair warrior. But I gloted about
how great the operation turned out to be. I gloted
about how resolute Trump was. I gloted about the operational security.
But throughout all of that, as I said on the
weekend program, and I started out the program today, that

(21:58):
doesn't mean it's over with. We still have to we
still have to think about preparing for Iranian retaliation. The
most immediate consequence could be an Iranian retaliation. Common Ay
is virtually assured that some kind of retaliation against at

(22:21):
least US basis in the region will occur, or targeting
the straight of hormones or maybe not. But we have
to start thinking and be prepared for that. Now. While
the Uranians have used perhaps well I don't know, I'm
just guessing here, but would I would guess as many

(22:43):
as half of their ballistic missile inventory against Israel over
the past what two weeks, eight days? Maybe they still
have hundreds upon hundreds of them available to sail across
the Persian Gulf into any of the American military installations.
Has Law is sitting on hundreds of thousands of rockets

(23:03):
and missiles that they could start launching at US and
again at Israel. The who these could start again, but
they all remain quiet. But just because they remain quiet
doesn't mean that we should at least think about Okay,
mission accomplished. We have a very well defined limited mission,

(23:25):
and we accomplished it. But for every action, there's a reaction.
Now I'm hoping the reaction is that dissidents within Iran
rise up and there's some sort of revolution and they
actually end up with some sort of interim leader that
they eventually hold some sort of free and fair elections.

(23:47):
I know it's all a pipe dream, but that's what
I hope for. The Persian people deserve. That they're a
history of They're a culture of great history in the art,
sciences and everything. They're freedom loving people. But we have
to think about what's going to happen next.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Now.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
I think a lot of pundits will just dismiss the
Iranians as a fairly weak conventional power. Yeah, not worthy
of our concern. But even a weak power has one
or two arrows in its quiver. And if one of
those quivers kills one American, I think Trump will feel

(24:31):
an even greater amount of pressure to plunge further into
this situation in the Middle East. So let's do the
out of body experience. Here's another potential consequence. I think
will Kamina react to the US strike by throwing up
his hands and begging for forgiveness or by rebuilding what

(24:52):
was destroyed. You won't find many analysts who know Iranian
history and how the Islamic Republic operates. Betting on the
f Homer scenario of him just giving up. The only
thing more dangerous to comminate the US military force is
submitting to American demands. Remember, these are backcrap crazy people,

(25:13):
truly crazy. It's one of the reasons why the Iranians
refused to meet the Trump administration's demands when Washington imposed
all the maximum pressure sanctions on the regime, because doing
so would be viewed as an embarrassment on the international
stage and they can't have that. And when you look

(25:34):
at it from the Iatolas perspective, that would have served
as a stepping stone for the United States issuing even
stronger demands in the future. So we got a standoff,
except during the standoff, Trump saw the opportunity and went
in and boom boom boom, hopefully completely destroyed their nuclear program.

(25:59):
So I don't think we should expect the Iranians to
wave the white flag. Instead, the Ayatola is more likely
to use these strikes as some sort of perverted rationale
to boot out all of the international inspectors, suspend or
withdraw from the Nuclear non Proliferation Treaty, start to redouble

(26:22):
their efforts to reconstruct whatever we destroyed, and continue to
do whatever they can to wipe out Israel and attack us.
Those within the regime that we're arguing that a nuclear
weapon was absolutely essential to keeping Americans and any other
foreign power at bay, they feel probably even more empowered.

(26:45):
You have to, you know, let's get to the nitty
gritty for just a second. So comin A is apparently
hidden in a bunker somewhere being protected by some unit
that I don't know whether this is true or not,
but I have read that nobody seemed to have known
about He had some sort of small union that did
nothing but protect him. Now I find it hard to

(27:07):
believe that Massad didn't know about it. Maybe they know
about him, they're just not saying anything. But if he's
hiding in a bunker and all this stuff, and I
mean literally down in a bunker somewhere, and ordinary Iranians
and people who are mid level, third tier, fourth tier

(27:30):
managers leaders in the military, you don't think they're thinking
about an internal coup to you know, he's down that bunker.
Let's do what the Americans did, and let's just go
blow that bunker up, get rid of Komena, and we'll
take over, and we'll have a military leader, a military dictator.

(27:52):
I actually kind of think that's the most likely thing
to happen unless Komene has such abe control. But if
he had such absolute control, why is he hiding? Why
has he come out of as a bunker? Well, because
he probably knows the Israelis are probably now ready to
assassinate him. So those that kept arguing that they're having

(28:18):
a nuclear program was necessary to keep all the international countries,
the Saudi's, the Kuwaitis, everybody at Bay that they haven't
changed their mind. I don't think now the Supreme Leader Commena,

(28:41):
who our intelligence community assessed had yet to give the
order to actually build a bomb, but had done everything
except okay, guys, we have all the components, now put
them together. Well, I think that's a misdirection by both
common A and by the local local media the national

(29:01):
media that has bought into it. Here we have a
situation where we don't know what options they will take. Now.
I'm sure that the signal intelligence and the human intelligence,
the macade intelligence is all scrambling and working over time

(29:26):
to get every kind of chatter and signal that they can,
both electronic and human, to find out what if any retaliation,
there will be. But whether there is any, and it's minor,
or it's major, or there's none, whichever it is, we
have to be ready for it. Are we glad you're back?

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Things just got too crazy.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
While you were gone. Anytime either one of you fellas
is out, things just get crazy.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
They would let Michael on the board at he stopped
playing talkbacks and everything, welcome back, Dragon stopped playing talkbacks.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Let's just say we had and then a lot of
serious miscommunication about talkbacks.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
I can see why that would happen because as I
had stated earlier in the show that there were like
two or three Michael Brown listers on this trip, so
they may be the ones that happened to leave all
the talkbacks.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Well that's three force to the audience right there, exactly
right right. I never truly understood. And of course there's
never an opportunity to have a conversation because just like you,
when you finish here, you have to run over there.
Well then a Rod had to run over there, and
then of course he had to do the same thing. Yeah,
and then Shannon just you know, was asleep the entire

(30:51):
time the day he was here. So so who knows
but it was pretty bizarre. But the one thing I
can guarante an to you is I didn't touch the
board at all, because you know my philosophy about that.
I don't want to learn anything about what you do.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Do you have any double clicking problem during tax Payer? Yes?

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yes, I even made a comment about okay, here we go,
and I'm sure, And so I watched and I think
I figured out.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
What's going on at double click, Michael.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
I double click and it turns blue. Right, so it
shows that it's ready to play, right.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Come on, kind of depending on what's going of what
else is going on. But yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
You double click and and that file is highlighted in blue. However,
if your mouse, like if you just even move the
mouse a nanoly, you know, a millionth of an inch,
it takes it off. So when I hit blue double

(31:55):
click it, I need to pick up the mouse, set
it back down, and hit play. When I move the
mouse takes them off. Yeah. Sure. One last thing that
I want to talk about real quickly, because Dragon screwed
up this segment for me. See it's his fault. Dirty bombs.

(32:16):
One of the things post nine to eleven that we
worry the most about was a dirty bomb. A dirty bomb.
First of all, A dirty bomb in and of itself
is not I mean, it's dangerous, don't get me wrong,
and it can really screw up depending on prevailing winds,
the size of the bomb, how much fisile material is

(32:39):
in a radioactive material. I mean, it can be fairly devastating.
But it's not like someone you know, it's not like
somebody dropped an atomic bomb, you know, somewhere in downtown Denver.
But it can make it uninhabitable, and then it becomes
And I had this argument all the time with the EPA.

(33:00):
How clean is clean? I mean, how long do we
have to wait? How do you know what level of
radiation is acceptable not acceptable? And what can we do
in the meantime? Blah blah blah blah blah. Well reports
over the weekend indicate that at least fifteen hundred I
don't remember the exact amount or exact count, but some

(33:21):
fifteen hundred Iranian nationals came across the border illegally during
the Biden administration. Wonder where they are and what they're doing. So,
if you really wanted to create chaos, and you really
wanted to drive it home, do it on American soil,

(33:45):
and again doesn't have to be a dirty bomb. I
just think that's one of their options. You could also,
you know, our wonderful power grid, because we're so busy
trying to get to net zero, Well you could take
that down. You know, during the heat wave in the summer,
Draggingly had a heat wave while you were gone, got
to one hundred degrees in June. Can you believe that?

(34:06):
I am shocked, if I know, I'm but I bet
where you were it was hnumitous. Yeah. Yeah,