| You can't teach at West Point without being duly | | | | essence, originally placed under the control of |
| prejudice in favor of the culminate goal of the U.S. | | | | Congress, or the legislative branch, as outlined in |
| military, embodied in the word "Pentagon," which is | | | | Article I of the U.S. Constitution. And nowhere |
| the implementation of unilateral presidential foreign | | | | does Article II convey to the President the |
| policy, whether good or bad. | | | | plenary authority to create law through the |
| I believe that columnist David Hoagland correctly | | | | writing of executive orders, or the luxurious |
| realized this fact before writing his candid | | | | option of adding signing statements to laws |
| commentary about General David Petraeus, the | | | | passed by Congress. No, the President, and the |
| politically savvy Princeton proponent of war. Yet, | | | | executive branch, are, according to James |
| all generals, and professional soldiers, are | | | | Madison in the Federalist #14, much more |
| proponents of war. That's what keeps them, and | | | | narrowly limited by the Constitution and human |
| their warriors, in business. Petraeus's mentors, | | | | reason. Why, in his opinion, was this so? |
| while at the United States Military Academy, | | | | In 1789, the Framers,during the Constitutional |
| taught him that his duty to the President, his | | | | Convention, reflected intently on a recently |
| Caesar, was, in effect, tantamount to his duty to | | | | previous revolutionary war waged against a |
| country. And that his honor was dependent upon | | | | tyrannical king, George III. These wise founding |
| his duty. Yet, I find no mention of duty to the | | | | fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution to preclude a |
| President in the oath taken by a newly appointed | | | | tyrant rising again in the form of a U.S. President. |
| cadet at West Point, but only duty to protect and | | | | That's why Article I, Section 8 gave only |
| defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, | | | | Congress the power to declare war and to make |
| foreign and domestic. | | | | rules governing the movements of land and naval |
| Duty, honor, and country are the three words | | | | forces. All that has been added to the power of a |
| which convey the same meaning today as the | | | | President, since 1945, has been done by tradition, |
| fevered cry of Julius Caesar's Roman legions, "we | | | | and by the refusal of Congress to exercise its |
| who are to die salute you, Caesar," pierced the air | | | | constitutional authority. The gradual politicization of |
| during the Punic Wars. Petraeus, and others like | | | | the U.S. Supreme Court, in declaring executive |
| him, were taught what the Harvard pundit, | | | | orders constitutional, has also contributed to the |
| Samuel P. Huntington, wrote as doctrine for | | | | demise of Congressional will to assert the powers |
| neoconservativism, that the military is the sword | | | | bestowed only the legislative branch. |
| of Prometheus, or perhaps, Damocles, in | | | | As a domineering imperial world power, the U.S. is |
| implementing the political will of the federal | | | | now repeating the same grave errors committed |
| executive branch. | | | | anciently by the imperial Roman Empire, with the |
| Presently, a standing U.S. President has the power | | | | approbation of a small uninformed majority of the |
| of a Caesar, and may, by the stroke of pen, | | | | American electorate. And the hubris of the now |
| create statutory law. I recall a minor 17th Century | | | | reigning King George, and his loyal Pentagon |
| pundit and essayist, Montaigne, who wrote | | | | followers, like David Petraeus, has, again, led the |
| emphatically that, "When the legislative, executive, | | | | United States into deadly and totally unnecessary |
| judicial powers reside in one person, a dictatorship | | | | war in Iraq, which is nothing more than another |
| has been effected." The U.S. military was, in | | | | bloody Vietnam. |