American democracy is at risk with new military law

The bill would allow Trump to attack countries and groups without supervision of Congress, creating permanent war risks and human rights violation

At a time that requires deep reflection on the limits of power, the United States focuses on a legislative proposal that is not only dangerous; It is a betrayal of the very foundations of democracy that the nation claims to defend. The bill aimed at granting President Donald Trump almost unlimited military authority represents more than a bellicist climbing; It is the institutionalization of autocratic power, a declaration of war against the balance of powers and a foolish step towards a global permanent state of war. This is not a party debate, but an alert to all who value freedom and international order.

The essence of democracy lies in supervision, counterweight and careful deliberation, especially when it comes to the most serious decision a government can make: to send citizens to die and kill in the name of the nation. The project in question, inspired by the infamous authorization for the use of the 2001 Military Force (AMF), intends to evise this fundamental principle.

By not appointing a specific enemy and granting to the president the unilateral power of defining who is a “terrorist” or which country is “complicit” of drug trafficking, the US Congress would effectively be signing a blank abdication of its constitutional power. It would be exchanging the complexity of governance with the tyranny of simplification, where suspect replaces evidence and presidential whim replaces the legal process.

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Comparison with George W. Bush’s AMF is terrifying for a simple reason: we know the results. Which began as an authorization to pursue al-Qaeda in Afghanistan became a blank check for military interventions in at least five countries-Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen-, destabilizing whole regions, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and feeding their own extremism that intended to fight.

The current proposal is even broader and wider. Focusing on “drug trafficking”, a fluid and politically malleable concept, it opens the door for military operations to be justified in up to 60 countries, according to the Institute for the Art of Responsible Government. This is not a security strategy; It is a recipe for chaos.

Recent attacks on the Caribbean Sea, which resulted in the deaths of 17 people and were denounced by Human Rights Watch as “illegal extrajudicial executions”, are a sinister denunciation of what is coming. These are the practical demonstration of a policy that acts first and asks later, which replaces courts with drones and due process of law with summary judgments. Granting even greater power to a president who already shows Such Disregard for international standards is a historical recklessness.

The most immediate and obvious target of this new authorization is Venezuela. Trump’s accusations against President Nicolás Maduro to lead a “drug cartel”, combined with the sending of war ships to the region, follow the same family script for pretext manufacturing to a regime change war.

The question raised by the New York Times – if this project grants the Trump authority for such war – is not rhetorical; It is urgent. The international community must be attentive: the blicing climb is not a fantasy, but a plan implemented in law articles and secret executive orders.

Harvard teacher Jack Goldsmith’s criticism by classifying the project as “insanely broad” is the most accurate description possible. It is a political insanity, a breach of democratic rationality. The concentration of such power in the hands of a single individual is antithetical to the spirit of the US Constitution.

Even members of both parties express concern, recognizing that this is not a debate about left or right, but about the perpetuation of a system where the executive branch is contained by the legislative and judiciary powers.

Those who advocate democracy inside and outside the United States must lift their voices against this initiative. This is not about being against the fight against drug trafficking or security threats; It is about being in favor that this combat is conducted with intelligence, within the law and with democratic supervision.

The true strength of a nation lies in the solidity of its institutions and its commitment to justice, not the ability of its leader to undo military blows without account.

Approving this bill would be more than a political error; It would be a monument to hypocrisy. While the US presents themselves as a headlight of democracy in the world, they would be in practice adopting the Autocrat Manual: concentrating power, silencing internal dissent, and exporting violence under an infinitely elastic pretext.

The world no longer needs one more power acting as a global judge, jury and executioner. Urgently needs diplomacy, cooperation and sovereign respect among nations. Burlying democracy in the name of combating them is the greatest threat to peace we can face.

With information from The Cradle*