Trump's Legal Strike on Iran: A Case Study in Presidential War Powers

 From Amuse on X:

A president sends bombers across an ocean. An adversary’s nuclear infrastructure lies in ruins by sunrise. The political response is predictable. Progressive lawmakers erupt with outrage, while establishment media outlets evoke doomsday analogies and quote scholars feigning constitutional clairvoyance. Yet the core question remains unmoved by headlines: Did President Trump have the legal authority to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities without prior congressional approval? Yes, he did. And if that sentence jars the reader’s sensibilities, one need only recall Barack Obama’s Libya intervention or Joe Biden’s Syria strikes, both executed without congressional authorization and with a fraction of the current outcry. To assert that Trump’s action was unique or impeachable is not only mistaken but deeply hypocritical. The United States has, for decades, operated under a presidency that claims robust authority to initiate limited military actions abroad, particularly when vital national interests are at stake. The 1973 War Powers Resolution, often brandished by critics, has become more of a procedural courtesy than a substantive check. Obama and Biden both used it to justify acts of war after the fact, with little or no prior consultation. No articles of impeachment followed. (Read more.)

 

From UnHerd:

Natanz, Iran’s primary uranium-enrichment facility, and the complex at Isfahan, where research for the nuclear weapons programme is conducted and weapons-grade fuel is stored, were struck with 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from naval vessels. Meanwhile, a B-2 bomber dropped two “bunker busters” on Natanz. Fordow, the critical Iranian enrichment facility, located deep under a mountain near Qom, was hit with a dozen bunker busters, according to US officials (initial reports said six). At the White House press conference following the strikes, Trump said all the sites had been “obliterated”. It will take some time to know if this is true.

When Israel began its military campaign in Iran 10 days ago, Natanz was one of the first targets, and it was confirmed that power had been cut to the facility and that the 15,000 centrifuges there had been “severely damaged if not destroyed altogether”. After last night’s US attack, it does not seem likely that much functionality remains at Natanz. Isfahan, as an above-ground site, had little hope of surviving a serious American attempt to destroy it, and the complex had already been seriously damaged by Israel. (Read more.)

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