New Plan for Baghdad = Same Old Rhetoric

On 7/26/06, President Bush laid out a brand new plan for stabilizing the deteriorating situation in Baghdad:
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"Under the prime minister's leadership, coalition and Iraqi leaders are modifying their operational concept to bring greater security to the Iraqi capital. Coalition and Iraqi forces will secure individual neighborhoods, will ensure the existence of an Iraqi security presence in the neighborhoods, and gradually expand the security presence as Iraqi citizens help them root out those who instigate violence. This plan will involve embedding more U.S. military police with Iraqi police units to make them more effective."

Wait, wasn't this the old plan? Here's an excerpt from the 2005 'National Strategy for Victory in Iraq':

"Efforts on the security track include offensive operations against the enemy, protection of key communication and infrastructure nodes, post-conflict stabilization operations, and the training, equipping, and mentoring of Iraqi Security Forces. Coalition transition teams are embedded in all Iraqi Army battalions to provide assistance and guidance when needed."

The definition of insanity: Repeatedly performing the same action while continuing to expect different results.

Domestic Espionage: Check Please

The NSA program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and more importantly the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. The FISA Act is a law that requires any wiretapping of American citizens to be authorized by the FISA Court. The President claims however that he has inherent and Congressionally mandated authority to bypass the FISA court as a result of the theory of the 'Unitary Executive', a divergent view of the Executive Branch which vests all powers not delegated by Congress or the Constitution to the President, in direct violation of the 'All Powers' clause of the Constitution, which delegates these powers to the people, NOT the President. Not only is President Bush breaking established law by wiretapping American citizens, he is doing so under a flawed and unconstitutional premise of power.

The only Congressional bill addressing this issue to receive much traction is one proposed by Senator Specter (R) which gives the President the option of having the program reviewed by the FISA court for its constitutionality. Senator Specter believes his bill will balance the need for judicial review of the program while honoring the Bush administration's need for secrecy. This reasoning is flawed for two reason:

It's wishful and contrived thinking that the Bush administration will agree to submit this program for review; they barely follow established law as is, let alone laws that don't actually require them to do anything.

The FISA court has no precedent to form an arguable case for or against the legality of this program; They approve or deny wiretapping requests, they don't argue constitutional law. By allowing the President to maintain a shroud of secrecy over this program, Senator Specter is giving in to the President's claim that the constitutional authority inherent in the Office of the President is enough to ignore, circumvent and deride Congressionally enacted law and our system of checks and balances.

(updated 8/4/06)