John Yoo vs Congress

Here's more from John Yoo, who we discussed last week, an advocate for greater Presidential warmaking powers:

Yoo, a long-standing defender of President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, challenged both the constitutionality and the effectiveness of giving Congress, rather than the president, the right to go to war. In a speech last week at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Yoo claimed congressional oversight does not always lead to smarter military decisions, possibly including the current war in Iraq.

"There are certainly decisions that Congress participated in that might have led to bad wars," he said. "Whether the Iraq war turns out well or badly, Congress issued a decision to authorize war. Vietnam is another war for which Congress passed a statute authorizing hostility. It doesn't seem to me that congressional participation automatically leads to good wars."

I agree with all this. Enough of all this "I voted for this before I voted against it" stuff.