The Senate on Wednesday refused the protect the U.S. Constitution from NATO. They rejected an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have clarified that Article 5 of the NATO treaty does not preclude the need for Congress to declare war.
Article 5 holds that an attack on any NATO member must be treated as an attack on the whole alliance as part of the collective defense commitment. However, it doesn’t mandate it because that would supersede the Constitution, which only allows Congress to declare war.
Sen. Rand Paul introduced the amendment to protect the Constitution and clarify that the treaty doesn’t supersede US law. It was defeated 83 to 16.
Why? Do they want to give the power to declare war over to NATO?
Representatives in D.C. might believe that NATO has the right to send our country to war without Congressional approval. This is at a time when the Military Industrial Complex is in control and leading us into battle.
This is the Amendment – only one line that would protect the US Constitution.
After it was voted down, Sen. Mike Lee came out because he was shocked and found it “disturbing.”
Excerpt:
“Most of my colleagues voted against it. Last I checked, there were zero Democrats and only 16 Republicans who voted for it. “This really did surprise me because the Constitution makes very clear in Article I Section 8 that in order to declare war, you’ve got to have a declaration of war from Congress.
“The president can’t do that on his own, and we certainly don’t want a treaty deciding that for us and taking us to war…
“It’s very, very dangerous to have a situation where you could go to war solely by virtue of treaty provision that itself doesn’t require you to go to war, much less supersede our own Constitution.”
I think it should be an easy vote to affirm the Constitution. To vote against affirming the Constitution actually places doubt in the Constitution.
~ Rand Paul
Does Congress now expect the treaty to supersede our Constitution and allow a President or dependent nations who don’t pay their bills to declare war via treaty?
The Senate just rejected Senator Paul’s proposal to clarify that Article 5 of the NATO treaty “does not supersede the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war.” Treaties can’t declare war. Only Congress can do that. Inexcusable. pic.twitter.com/TK40JZhZC4
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 19, 2023
The only senators who voted to protect the Constitution: Mike Braun, Ted Cruz, Steve Daines, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, John Kennedy, James Lankford, Mike Lee, Cynthia Lummis, Roger Marshall, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Eric Schmitt, Tommy Tuberville, and J.D. Vance.
On the same day, we learn that the US is considering sharing nuclear weapons with Poland, a nation eager to go to war.
On the same day, we also learned from Gen. Milley that the Ukraine situation is near-impossible. We would have to enter the war to defeat Russia. If defeated in Ukraine, Russia warns they will use nuclear weapons. They believe Ukraine’s membership in NATO is an existential threat. Indeed, senators have said that NATO expansion is inevitable.
Milley said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group:
“Ten F-16s are $2 billion. So, the Russians have hundreds of fourth and fifth-generation airframes. If they (the Ukrainians) are going to try to match the Russians, one-for-one or even two-to-one, you are talking about a large number of aircraft.
That’s going to take years to train the pilots, years to do the maintenance and sustainment, years to generate that degree of financial support to do that. You’re talking way more billions of dollars than has already been generated,” Milley said during a press briefing.
It’s all about Ukraine. It’s always been about Ukraine.
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