Page 5 - War Making News Today

>> i wonder whether you think, as someone who has served, it struck me the description of war-making, however limited in this case and, you know t was one strike, as entertainment. it struck me as a way of not fully grapplinwith the gravity of what the commandein chief has to do. >> how aboutryan williams on the destroyer, i think it was, that was shooting off missiles and saying, arent they beautiful? isnt this wonderful? this is the idea that many americans have about war now because they have...

Pyongyang that they were willing to send missiles at people. thats what they did essentially. >> i wonder whether you think, as someone who has served, it struck me the description of war-making, however limited in this case and, you know t was one strike, as entertainment. it struck me as a way of not fully grappling with the gravity of what the commander in chief has to do. >> how about bryan williams on the destroyer, i think it was, that was shooting off missiles and saying, arent they beaut...

Responsibility to conduct relations with other countries, but the constitution is very clear when it comes to war-making, when it comes to military activity, thats a congressional prerogative. president obama understood that. thats why he asked for authorization from congress before bombing syria. he wasnt likely to get, if but that was for a good reason. thats because the american public were very reticent to support that kind of military action in syria, and though i think they might support t...

Realities of our war making. and the fact that there is a blank check for the president to continue these wars, is part of the problem. also on the question of the presidents peacemaking legacy, we do also have to remember the iran deal, we have to remember cuba. these are important things that have happened in terms of making -- in terms of coming to peaceful solutions to conflict that involve the united states. i think we need to remember those things. >> when you see the president engaging in...

Tony schaefer in d.c. we are joined in new york by a ukrainian-born attorney. and ambassador for special political affairs. ambassador holiday if i can start with you, is it too late for diplomacy here? >> no, its not. obviously putin has tried to change the facts on the ground, be you what the president has the opportunity to do is to push for a political solution and obviously mr. putin will only agree to that if he sees there is going to be an autonomous korea, excuse me, crimea. so for us, w...

Schaffer in d.c. we are joined by ukrainian born attorney and by former u.s. ambassador to the united states for special political affairs. if i can start with you, is it too late for diplomacy here? >> no, it is not. obviously putin is trying to change the facts on the ground. what the president has the opportunity to do is to push for a political solution. and obviously mr. putin is only to going to agree to that if he sees an autonomous crimea. for us what we have to stand up against is this ...

>> what kind of world would we live in if the united states of america sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas. and we choose to look the other way? >> it will be the world we have lived in -- since president reagan looked the other way when saddam hussein used chemical weapons. the red line on chemical weapons, suggests there are civilized and uncivilized ways of death in war. war is not civilized. war is the break down of civilization. war making nations need to beli...

Live in if the united states of america sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas. and we choose to look the other way? >> it will be the world we have lived in -- since president reagan looked the other way when saddam hussein used chemical weapons. the red line on chemical weapons, suggests there are civilized and uncivilized ways of death in war. war is not civilized. war is the break down of civilization. war making nations need to believe otherwise. they need to bel...

Countrys troops where minimally in harms way because theyre in planes or safety of a ship firing missiles or actively in harms way because theyre on ground guiding the missiles, the country doesnt want anymore of that. >> exactly. you look at the history of the war powers act, it was enacted after vietnam. the war was very world weary, united states was war-weary and didnt want to find themselves into a quagmire as vietnam was called and this was enacted in some ways to prevent that from happeni...

From your sources there was an internal fight for the president to come to this decision after talking with his chief of staff? >> the political people were concerned about it because they do have work to do on capitol hill. its not an easy vote. there were worries about the risks. the president has always taken political risks going back to when he first ran for president. so there was some concern on the political side about this but there wasnt active opposition. no, you should not go to cong...