Sneaky declarations bypass Congress to take US to war

Source: Global Times
[19:25 May 09 2011]

By Ronda Hauben

The Korean War ended in 1953, but its legacy still lingers in American war-making policy today.

At a recent conference on “The Unending Korean War” at New York University, the keynote speaker, Bruce Cumings, a history professor at the University of Chicago, explained that the UN provided the means for the then US President Harry S. Truman to bypass the US Congress in intervening in the Korean War.

Under Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution, the power to declare war is vested in the Congress. But in June 1950, Truman did not go to Congress for a declaration of war.

Instead, Cumings explained, “The UN was the legislature that the US knew they would get a majority vote in.” At the time, the Soviet Union was refusing… weiter lesen

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The current international situation raises important questions for discussion and analysis. In a complex world, how can one have a means to understand what is happening? While the mainstream media often project one view of the world, online discussion and analysis have begun to play an ever more important role in offering alternative viewpoints and analysis.

Around the world there has been a recognition that the mainstream western media can play a harmful role for those trying to develop an accurate understanding of the events of our times.The example of the US media promoting the US government misrepresentation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction led to a number of critiques of how such a falsification could occur. The question was raised as to what is the means to prevent similar occurrences in the future. One such answer was to recognize that a serious problem with much of the… weiter lesen