The New York Times describes how legal reasoning works in the Obama administration. It goes like this: the end justifies the means.



But Barron and Lederman realized that they had to ‘evolve’.




And evolve they did.  The rest, as they say, is history. In their own defense they believe they’ve managed to avoid the intellectual excesses of the Bush Doctrine. But as a practical matter, they gave the Obama administration far more power than was used under than under President Bush’s “sweeping” arrogation. The Washington Post published a graphic showing the drone activity under President Obama.

Permanent War that is Non-War

What is truly remarkable about this graph is not only how the attacks have spiked, but that they occur in places where military action has not been formally authorized by Congress.

Congress, you may remember, once had the power the declare war according to a ‘hundred year old document that nobody reads any more’. That was before clever lawyers figured out that cases involving children in Japan could be cited to authorize striking American citizens anywhere on the planet.

How does one resolve the contradiction between what you hear and what you get? President Obama campaigned on ‘ending the war’ and engaging in ‘grand bargains’ with the Muslim world.  But perhaps he realized that, given the low information character of his voter base, that for so long as he used the correct terminology to describe his actions, he could treat them like kiddies; he could do one thing while pretending to be engaged in another.

Thus, the War on Terror became law enforcement. Intervention became ‘kinetic military activity’. Destabilizing any country he chose to target became known as ‘leading from behind’. And when anybody objected to the apparently military character of events they were simply characterized as consequent to a ‘duty to protect’. And the kiddies clapped.

In other words, as long as he lied to his base he could get away with anything. But eventually even the worm turns. Even the chumps wise up.

The New York Times is belatedly realizing that President Obama has altered the meaning of the word ‘war’ beyond recognition and having done so is constrained by nothing.  Reflecting on Eric Holder’s apparent concession to Rand Paul that attacking Americans on US soil is not Constitutionally permissible law professor Ryan Goodman realizes it’s just another word game.





By declining to specify what it means to be “engaged in combat,” the letter does not foreclose the possible scenario — however hypothetical — of a military drone strike, against a United States citizen, on American soil.

What does it mean to be “engaged in combat”? Well it means whatever the President means it to mean, Mr. Goodman. You are now helpless.

Lawyers have rarely been able to contain power. As practical matter power is constrained only by politics, which as Clausewitz once observed can be another name for another thing which doesn’t exist any more.


Obama’s voters abolished the political consequences. They re-elected him and got what they voted for. President Obama’s unbridled accumulation of power is not the product of a legal failure. It is the consequence of a political failure. The Democratic and Republican parties have allowed a relatively small cabal of individuals of no particular moral stature to exercise unbridled authority over a great state. They been left free for years now to operate without a budget, to utter obvious lies and have Candy Crowley insist they are the truth, they have been permitted to scoff at the law — Fast and Furious comes to mind — and to proceed without even a cursory vetting. All in the pursuit of the partisan political promise of a permanent majority.

He’s promised his supporters employment, free health care, peace on earth, nuclear disarmament, cradle to grave welfare and total transparency. They were offered a carrot and will get nothing but a painted stick. Instead of Hope and Change there be  get poverty, death panels, war, and package of ramen noodles for their troubles. Winston Churchill warned an earlier generation of political opportunists that the devil rarely keeps his bargain. “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

But by then it was too late.  Those who are too smart to learn from their mistakes don’t.

The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99

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No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99

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