Michelle Obama Quotes
The issues that cross a president's desk are never easy. The easy questions don't even get to the president.
Obama, Michelle. "Remarks by the First Lady at a Clinton Campaign Event." National Archives, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Speech.
The reality is that if there were sufficient information, the issue would likely have been resolved at a lower level. See Adam Yarmalinsky’s quotation {38346} .
Alberto Gonzalez, White House Counsel and later Attorney General who was forced to resign and David S. Addington, Counsel to the Vice President, had come up with a novel view of the powers of the presidency. They argued that since the President is the Commander in Chief, in a war situation or intelligence gathering thereto, has the Constitutional responsibility for that function, he need not obey any laws of Congress as in the conduct of the war Congress would be impinging on the Constitutional separation of powers which itself was prohibited by the Constitution. The argument did not find any significant legal support but for a while the George W. Bush White House behaved as if this were the law, despite the fact that even in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 Congress passed laws regulating the conduct of the armed forces as is provided for in other parts of the Constitution. Yet even Goldsmith would allow the President some powers that many think are unconstitutional and/or belong to Congress. See {32436}.
The enriched nuclear fuel could be used to operationalize a nuclear bomb. Iran had a history of using illegal poison gas in the Iraq-Iran War (Both sides used chemical weapons.) Iran had a history of aiding terrorist organizations. And Iran is the only nation belonging to the UN and sighing its charter in modern history that has threatened to destroy another nation via their President whose threats had not been retracted. Iran also is a Shiite Muslim nation and is at odds with the Sunni Muslim countries of the Middle East and if the Iraqis developed a nuclear bomb, there would be a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race. If Iraq would not cease its development program under pressure from other nations, a military attack was the other option. All were indeed ugly.
from the Divinity on the matter
Actually, there are many in politics who to this day castigate Truman for his decision, but for Bloomberg’s generation and before, anyone would have pushed the button. And there are some who still fault Obama as technically, the U. S. had no right to violate Pakistani airspace and kill a resident of their state without any due process in the U. S. or Pakistan. Bloomberg would have easily pushed that button, but there are many officials who warned against it, and earlier Presidents—George W. Bush and Bill Clinton who did not authorize assassinations in foreign (allies) countries.
Before Theodore Roosevelt, American Presidential Candidates had to pretend that they did not seek the presidency and remain passive. However Roosevelt changed that norm and the primary elections, taking the nomination away from a few party leaders, further required Presidential aspirants to campaign. The principle Lomdes articulated was that if called upon, one was obligated to serve, but should not overtly seek the position and wait to be called by the people.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who served as the First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.
