Foreign Policy: Is Dr Paul Wrong About Speedy Troop Withdrawal?

[David40]

I was reading a comment by some guy on Facebook who stated Dr Paul was lying when he says he would just bring the troops home. The guy asserted that withdrawal of troops would require congressional approval and that only 100K troops could be removed at a time. I was under the impression the President as Commander and Chief could withdraw as many troops as he pleased from a police action at his own discretion. Does anyone have any knowledge on how this works? Would President Paul have the authority to remove as many of our troops as he pleased without the approval of Congress?
Thanks

 

[fisharmor]

Considering that they need a congressional declaration of war to be there in the first place, I think even if he was right that congress needs to bring them home, nobody would care... because nobody cared about adhering to the rules to send them.

Presidents can and have in the past taken actions or prevented actions based on their personal belief in the unconstitutionality of a matter.
President Paul can and will order them home immediately and I suspect that the unconstitutionality of their being there would be at least one reason for doing so.
Also, congress has no enforcement powers at all. The executive does. If congress was that unhappy about it, the only thing they can do (besides cry and stamp their feet) is impeach.
And considering how unpopular congress is, let's just see how far they get with trying to remove the president to continue a war which is bankrupting us.

 

[bluesc]

It's an undeclared war. He can bring them home whenever he likes.

I've never heard of the 100,000 troop limit. That sounds like a bit much all at once. It's all about logistics. Transport ships, and escorts. It would take a while to bring them all home, but he would begin immediately.

 

[klamath]

Ask him to state his sources for the 100,000 limit and ask him where in the constitution the comander in chief cannot withdraw troops and redeploy them as he sees fit even in a declared war?

 

[David40]

That's about what I figured but I wanted to find out where this 100K rule or law came from. I asked the guy and I'll see if he replies. Might just be BS, what do you expect from an Obama lover.

 

[Bruehound]

I only need to see "some guy on facebook said" to formulate my opinion on the accuracy of that statement.

 

[NJames]

 

[Freedomluvinmamma30]

The man is wrong. Congress only has the power to declare war. The constitution takes away a lot of war making power from the president. However, once at war the president has full authorization for troop movement, increasing, decreasing, and complete withdrawal. However, since this war isn't even authorized I would say the president can bring them home. The point is he can start tomorrow withdrawing troops into European bases and then flying them home from there. But, Logistically it would be a nightmare. But you have to start somewhere.

 

[David40]

Lol!!!!

 

[KCIndy]

I only need to see "some guy on facebook said" to formulate my opinion on the accuracy of that statement.

This^^^

 

[Tarzan]

The man is wrong. Congress only has the power to declare war. The constitution takes away a lot of war making power from the president. However, once at war the president has full authorization for troop movement, increasing, decreasing, and complete withdrawal. However, since this war isn't even authorized I would say the president can bring them home. The point is he can start tomorrow withdrawing troops into European bases and then flying them home from there. But, Logistically it would be a nightmare. But you have to start somewhere.

Yeah... the guy is dead wrong and talking out his ass.

Regarding withdrawals... they should be done in an orderly manner. By that I mean that you remove troops in combat first. You keep all of their support mechanisms in place. Once our forces are out of harms way we start shutting down remote bases in at risk locations. You save the largest and strongest base and close the smaller ones first. Then, when those force have been recalled you shut down the largest (and now single remaining base) in at risk locations. You have to keep the support network in place until it is absolutely no longer needed. Then you do the same with the support bases... small ones first with centrally located major base to support the recall and base shutdown.