The Patriot
President Bush had good reason to take us to war
Wed Sep 25 22:15:58 2002
208.152.73.42

http://www.ctnow.com/news/opinion/commentary/hc-balkin0922.artsep22,0,5216697.story?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Dcommentary

The Most Dangerous Person On Earth
It's Not Who Bush Would Like You To Think It Is

September 22, 2002
By JACK M. BALKIN

When George W. Bush was governor of Texas, his basic strategy was to
stake out a position and refuse to budge, hoping to bully others into
acquiescing. Only when met with strong opposition did he back down and
compromise. We are seeing the same strategy in his policy over Iraq. In
the past weeks, the president has attempted to bully the United Nations
and now Congress into allowing him to attack Iraq and depose its leader.
He is likely to get his wish. But the larger problem is not what will
happen if no one stands up to Saddam Hussein. It is what will happen if
no one stands up to the president and his vision of moral clarity.

Our Constitution left the power to declare war to Congress because of
the fear that if the president could act unilaterally, he might seek to
aggrandize himself by taking the country into one war after another.
Although the president could always defend the nation if attacked, he
could not initiate hostilities without Congress' approval. In the 20th
century, Congress' role has receded of necessity, so the president's
power to make war has been hemmed in largely by domestic politics, the
threat of nuclear reprisal and international law.

The Bush administration's new policy of pre-emptive attacks is a
dangerous addition to this mixture, creating a host of bad incentives.
Simply by announcing future threats that deserve pre-emptive action,
presidents can seize control of the political stage. A president who
takes the country to war pushes aside all other concerns. By shifting
the nation's forces from one military offensive to another, he can
divert attention from domestic failures and foreign policy blunders. The
more often the president attacks other countries pre-emptively, the more
likely it becomes that our country will be attacked in turn. The
president can then justify additional military action in response, and
no patriotic American will oppose it.

In this way, the president can effectively govern through war, with
disastrous consequences for the nation and for the world. Armed with the
doctrine of military pre-emption, the perpetual political campaign
perfected by our last president might well become the perpetual military
campaign of future presidents.

President Bush had good reason to take us to war after Sept. 11. Still,
he has not accomplished his stated goal of eliminating al Qaeda or
capturing Osama bin Laden. With victory not achieved and Afghanistan
still unstable, he has now attempted to shift our attention to a new war
with Iraq. Again, he may well have excellent reasons for doing so. But
we must pay attention to the larger picture. Members of Congress
debating authorization for an attack on Iraq should ask the president
tough questions about what future military actions he is considering.
The way the president's foreign policy is proceeding, Iraq may not be
the last war he asks us to fight.

The president is right about one thing, however. Today the world faces a
single man armed with weapons of mass destruction, manifesting an
aggressive, bullying attitude, who may well plunge the world into chaos
and bloodshed if he miscalculates. This person, belligerent, arrogant
and sure of himself, truly is the most dangerous person on Earth. The
problem is that his name is George W. Bush, and he is our president.

Jack M. Balkin is Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First
Amendment at Yale Law School. His latest book is "The Laws of Change"
(Schocken Books, 2002).
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Thomas M. Cooley: Principles of Constitutional Law

power to declare war