War Powers Resolution, R I P - Editorial

One bit of good news out of Somalia: the demise of the War Powers Resolution. Enacted twenty years ago over President Nixon's veto, it attempted to impose a sixty-day limit on military actions abroad unless authorized by Congress. In Somalia, the Clinton Administration has informed Representative Benjamin Gilman that the Resolution does not apply, since US. forces in Somalia are involved only intermittently in military action. This is an argument that the congressional Democrats fiercely rejected when President Reagan invoked it in Lebanon. (By this standard, of course, World War II might have fallen outside the scope of the Resolution since Pearl Harbor, Midway, D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge all lasted less than sixty days.)

On the Hill, Democrats have reflexively introduced bills to "authorize" the involvement in Somalia. But different versions of the bill passed the House and Senate, and Senator Mitchell is making no effort to push it to a conclusion - partly so as not to challenge his reluctant President, partly for fear of losing a floor vote as the Somalia adventure becomes a political liability. Thus, as fighting intensifies, the War Powers Resolution is ditched by the party that invented it. It's a precedent that the next Republican President will cheerfully embrace.

COPYRIGHT 1993 National Review, Inc.
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