What We Certainly Won't Learn from the Trumppening

Since (at least) 9/11, the power of the executive to wage war however it sees fit has known no meaningful limits. This is an institutional problem, not a problem of this one temporary administration. We will (mostly) collectively breathe a sigh of relief when Donald Trump is no longer the person nominally making the decisions, but the problem will not be resolved when he is gone.

The headline on this article, and its overall tone, downplays the reality and severity of the underlying issue.

~ ~ ~

Trump Poised to Drop Some Limits on Drone Strikes and Commando Raids

The Trump administration is preparing to dismantle key Obama-era limits on drone strikes and commando raids outside conventional battlefields, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations. The changes would lay the groundwork for possible counterterrorism missions in countries where Islamic militants are active but the United States has not previously tried to kill or capture them.

President Trump’s top national security advisers have proposed relaxing two rules, the officials said. First, the targets of kill missions by the military and the C.I.A., now generally limited to high-level militants deemed to pose a “continuing and imminent threat” to Americans, would be expanded to include foot-soldier jihadists with no special skills or leadership roles. And second, proposed drone attacks and raids would no longer undergo high-level vetting.

But administration officials have also agreed that they should keep in place one important constraint for such attacks: a requirement of “near certainty” that no civilian bystanders will be killed.

(...)

The updated rules would continue to limit such strikes to members of groups that the executive branch has deemed to be covered by the aging congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks, including Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and their associated forces.

~ ~ ~

The so-called "Obama-era limits" are simply rules drafted by the Obama administration as a suggestion to itself and subsequent administrations. They have no weight, no real enforceability.

Reread the last sentence in the quote above. It essentially says: The updated rules "limit" strikes to whoever the executive branch decides should be struck. This is not a limit! This is effectively meaningless! This is precisely as it was before, too.

It's worth remembering that when we talk about "Obama-era limits" we're talking about the administration with a "kill-list." The administration that more or less invented executive drone warfare.
(https://nyti.ms/2nGjKfn, https://nyti.ms/2k9uxKq)

The tone of this article suggests that the problem is with the Trump administration, but the real problem is the amount of authority granted to *any* executive administration. The power claimed by George W. Bush and Barack Obama and Donald Trump and whoever comes after is not being properly checked.

There are all sorts of terrible things about The Trumppening. The one that maybe scares me the most is the idea that once it's over--once we "restore order" with whatever Republican or Democratic toadie sits on the throne next--we'll be so relieved that Trump is gone that we'll quickly forget that it is *always* a terrible idea to give so much power to *any* single individual. Especially when you don't know who's going to be wielding that power next.

https://nyti.ms/2jRoPSa