President Obama speaks at Northwestern University on Thursday in Evanston, Ill. (Brendan Smialowski, AFP/Getty Images)
Re: “Sorry, Congress, but President Obama can bomb just about anything he wants to,” Sept. 28 Perspective article.
Whether one agrees or not with the latest U.S. incursion against terrorism, Eric Posner is right in his assertion that an American president can legally use force whenever he (or, maybe someday, she) decides such force is necessary.
Most Americans would not want any president to go to war without congressional consultation and approval for just any reason, no matter how noble a president might be able to make it sound in a speech. But this Congress and a number of others that preceded it have shown the American people that they not only cannot get much done, but they cannot even hold reasonable discussions of consultation without descending into deep, non-productive, anything-but-bipartisan gutters.
It is correct for Congress to want to be involved in any war decisions. But this Congress and those that follow it need to prove to the American people that they are worthy and capable of such consultation.
Mary Stanik, Casa Grande, Ariz.
This letter was published in the Oct. 5 edition.
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