Our new and improved Iraq discussion thread!

[TGS]

That depends on the country you're standing in with said diplomatic passport, but nalesq and I were just reliving a little LWII.

What country grants any level of immunity to the bearer of a diplomatic passport simply for possessing such dip book?

Immunity is granted when an individual is accredited by a host nation, or in the weakest form of derivative immunity when declared on diplomatic note for accompanying a head of state or ministerial level official.

I'm unaware of anywhere that grants immunity for simply possessing a dip book. If you know, let me in on the secret so I can start changing my flight routing when working.

[NEPAKevin]

If it was Hilary he’d have killed himself recently.

I don't think they are each other's type. Just look at his history of wives and alleged mistresses and don't make me play the (NSFW or anywhere else for that matter)Cathy O'Brien card for Hillary.

[Hambo]

Yeah, I get why, as a general rule, it might be a bad idea to go down the road of whacking high-ranking officials from foreign countries.

We didn't smoke the head of the French Foreign Legion. We killed a guy who was commanding a force that we and other countries consider to be a terrorist organization, supporting other terrorist organizations in the world.

[farscott]

The War Powers Resolution requires “(1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.” It is not a block grant for the president to do whatever he wants for a limited period of time. I find it hard to call the status quo for over 10 years an emergency. Of the two potential congressional authorizations cited one is specifically related to Iraq not Iran the other is specifically related to the September 11 planners, perpetrators, authorizer, aiders, and harborers. I’m am not aware of Iran being any of those. From Rand Paul and Mike Lee’s reaction it does not appear that the senate has been given any information that would contradict my understanding. There may be some theory that makes the strike constitutional I honestly don’t know. The government is supposed to be limited in power they need to explain why they are authorized to take action; not take action and see if anyone can come up with a reason they aren’t. That goes for the executive and legislative branches, Republicans and Democrats, Trump and any future or past elected official. After they present a reason they are empowered to take an action then the judiciary and citizens can have a real discussion on wether it is lawful or appropriate.

With all due respect, the scope of the powers provided under the War Powers Resolution is not exactly well defined. Administrations of both parties, back to Richard Nixon's, have stretched the language. Examples include the intervention in Libya back in 2011 and Syria in 2012. The latter engagement ran for almost four years under the Obama Administration and continued under the Trump Administration and included ground forces (which violated the few terms Congress supplied) and Tomahawk missile attacks in the spring of 2017. The terrorist resolution was also used as authorization to assassinate an American citizen who had joined a terrorist group. While Congress has always complained about POTUS abusing the subject resolutions, Congress has also not passed legislation to clarify the extremely muddy waters or to put limits on POTUS and the role of Commander-in-Chief.

One could also argue that knowledge of an attack on US forces and/or diplomatic personnel and embassies is enough to trigger the "national emergency" clause and the Iraq resolution applies, especially as said terrorist was attacked in Iraq and the target of the imminent attack was said to be Embassy Baghdad. All in all, this operation, when looking at the history of how administrations have exercised military power, is pretty minor. The biggest factor in the uproar is the deceased was a general officer of a nation state's military and the oh-so-public nature of the attack.

In any event, Iran's reprisal (communicated three hours before and with an apparent effort to minimize causalities) appears to have been tempered by the understanding that President Trump does not believe in proportionate responses. It seems to have worked in this instance. My concern is that this success will embolden him, and the next belligerent may not react in the same manner. Egos have no place in diplomacy or in military action.

[txdpd]

Maybe Trump had a hangover from celebrating his stock being at all time highs before his impeachment trial.
If Iran was giving Trump a slap, it was a slap on the back.

[fly out]

... let me in on the secret so I can start changing my flight routing when working.

Pretty sure that's not how it works. I believe quite a few holders of Caribbean diplomatic passports found out the hard way that a diplomatic passport isn't a get-of-jail-free card when traveling. If one was a conspiracy theorist, one might think that whole racket was a honeypot.

Anyway, it's been my impression that the arrangements are bilateral conventions. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the U.S. has few, to none of them.

[TGS]

Pretty sure that's not how it works.

I understand that . There's a fair amount of sarcasm in my post. I'm speaking from a point of professional knowledge/experience on diplomatic passports and the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations as it establishes immunities.

[Baldanders]

I'm curious as to whether any members of this forum had any high school or college aged relatives in their family who were genuinely concerned about being drafted.

As I have said, even my rural, huntin' and shooting, Trump- loving students were freaking out abput WWIII and a draft. (Not all, but a majority.)

Panic spreads quickly. I remember a civics teacher freaking out that we would all be drafted during Gulf War I in high school.

I would say well under 25% of our citizens understand why a draft is nearly impossible.

I told my kids that as long as anyone in our military remembers Vietnam, that shit ain't happening, and my father's story about guys offering $50 bucks a pop for my Dad's urine so they could pass the piss test to GET OUT of Vietnam.


In other news...how did the Iranians manage to shoot down a passenger jet taking off from their own airport?

[Yung]

I read your post about your students earlier. I wanted to know more along the lines about younger people in member's families.

[TiroFijo]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...l-report-says/