From Peace Action (http://www.peace-action.org/):
Urge you members of Congress to cosponsor legislation blocking funding for a preemptive strike on North Korea.
Have you been seeing these headlines? Washington Post: Can Anyone Stop Trump From Attacking North Korea? [1] The Nation: Is the United States Planning to Attack North Korea? [2] It’s hard to say exactly what the administration is thinking or planning, but what we know is that the threat of war with North Korea is higher than it’s been since the end of the Korean War, and the threat of nuclear war is higher than it’s been since the height of the Cold War.
We also know that the administration has toyed with the idea of preemptive military strikes against North Korea. The Constitution and the War Powers Act prohibit the president from launching preemptive military strikes without congressional approval, but that didn’t stop Trump from launching unconstitutional strikes on a Syrian government air base earlier this year.
Please write your senators and representative today at http://org.salsalabs.com/o/161/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=22514&okay=true and ask them to cosponsor legislation to prevent Trump from starting a war with North Korea without congressional approval.
To create another backstop against Trump’s ability to unilaterally start a preemptive war, our allies in Congress have introduced legislation to block funding for any preemptive strike on North Korea without prior congressional approval. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the No Unconstitutional Strike Against North Korea Act (S. 2016) last week. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and seven other senators introduced similar legislation earlier this week (S. 2047). In the House, Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) have introduced a similar bill (H.R. 4140).
We need to build congressional support for these bills as quickly as possible. We’re already off to a good start with 60 cosponsors in the House and 9 senators supporting the Senate versions. With widespread concern over the crisis with North Korea, these bills are also getting better press coverage than some of the other efforts by Congress to reclaim its war powers. If we flood Capitol Hill with emails right now, the combination of grassroots and media pressure could make the difference for some members of Congress who would otherwise stay silent, and that could mean the difference between war and peace.
Preventing our president from launching a preemptive war without Congress is of the utmost importance. But finding a way to solve the crisis with North Korea is also vital. That’s why these bills also call for a full throated pursuit of negotiations to deescalate the crisis and begin working towards the freezing and rolling back of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Just as grassroots pressure on Congress was necessary to secure the Iran Nuclear Agreement, grassroots pressure is needed to get the ball rolling on talks with North Korea, and there’s no time to waste.
References:
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/11/01/can-anyone-stop-trump-from-attacking-north-korea
[2] https://www.thenation.com/article/is-the-united-states-planning-to-attack-north-korea/
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