Conyers, Markey, Massie Bill—No Preemptive Attack on North Korea

PRESS RELEASE

Conyers, Markey, Massie Bill—No Preemptive Attack on North Korea

Oct. 27, 2017 (EIRNS)—Congressmen John Conyers (a Korean War veteran) introduced a bipartison bill today titled "No Unconstitutional Strike Against North Korea Act of 2017," prohibiting an attack on North Korea without approval of the Congress. The bill

"restricts funds available to the Department of Defense or to any other federal department or agency from being used to launch a military strike against North Korea without the prior approval of Congress or the imperative to respond to an attack against the United States or its allies,"

according to a statement on Conyers’ website. The legislation, H.R. 4140, is sponsored by Conyers, Ed Markey and Republican Thomas Massie, with 61 co-sponsors.

The statement claims that Trump has threatened preemptive war on North Korea, although Trump’s belligerent statements have stopped short of such a preemptive threat.

Conyers quotes George Washington:

"The Constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure."

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, visiting the Demilitarized Zone today while in South Korea, said: "As Secretary of State Tillerson has made clear, our goal is not war, but rather the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."