Abrogation. Avoidance. More Bombing.

So we're off to War the 4th in the Middle East. Or 5th. I've lost track.

How we got here is truly inane. The Syrians have effectively promoted ISIS by manipulating their little civil war so ISIS became the predominant group. It's an old trick of tyrants: Eliminate any moderate opposition so that what's left are the really evil guys. That way, the tyrants can stand up and say: "I know all y'all despise me, but it's either me or them guys." The Saudis engaged in their age-old practice of funding extremist groups while simultaneously ignoring any possibility that the monsters they were midwifing would come to threaten them.

Recently removed Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki tried to "coup-proof" the Iraqi army by pushing out competent officers and putting in sycophants. The problem with doing that is that it also neutered the army as far as being able to defend against external threats. Not that there was a serious external threat at the time, for Iraq had become more-or-less an Iranian vassal state. Nobody else was going to attack them, not the Jordanians, Turks or Syrians. And the Saudis, well, they'd wrinkle their Savile Row-tailored uniforms doing anything so messy as being in a war. {Horrors!}

The Kurds have fighters, but no other players in the region were interested in seeing them have much in the way of military capabilities beyond policing their own territory.

So it was Syrian venality, Iraqi cupidity and Saudi stupidity that got us to where ISIS is bomb-worthy to the United States.

The problem, at least domestically, is Congress. Not one of those fucktards is truly interested in exercising any degree of control. Congress has the power to declare war.[1] They have the power of the purse. They have the ability to make a collective decision and enforce it.

But they don't. They'd all rather go on the talk shows and either support the President's policy or condemn it, as the whim strikes them, and as the polls indicate the amount of support the President has from the people.[2,3] Because if there is any place in America that we can't look for anything resembling leadership, it's Congress. The Ebola virus has a higher public approval rating than Congress.

So we'll continue on the way that we have been going for decades. The President, whomever he (or she) happens to be, orders military action against anyone he wants to for whatever flimsy reason he deems fit.  And over and over, the President engages our country in wars, usually by not calling them wars.

When we're dropping bombs on people, it's a fucking war.[4] It's high time that we not only own up to that fact, but that the Congress finds the spine to do something beyond individual members making stupid speeches and going on the Sunday morning blabfests.
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[1] Though declaring a formal war on a stateless entity is an interesting concept.
[2] "There go my people, I must find out where they are going so I can lead them."- Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin (possibly)
[3] In that regard, one might think of Congress as just a pack of mouthy bloggers.
[4] Unless you're in the Philadelphia police or in Tulsa.