It happened throughout the Cold War. To fight the communist dictatorships, U.S. officials maintained, it would be necessary for U.S. officials to wield and exercise the same omnipotent, dark-side powers wielded and exercised by those communist dictatorships. Otherwise, if the hands of U.S. officials were tied, such as by constitutional restraints, America, it was said, would inevitably fall to the Reds.
That’s how we got the conversion of America’s founding governmental system of a limited-government republic to a national-security state, which was the same type of governmental system in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and other communist states. That’s how we ended up living under a national-security establishment that wields such omnipotent, dark-side, non-reviewable powers as assassination, torture, kidnapping, indefinite detention, wars of aggression, invasions, occupations, coups, and alliances with brutal dictatorial regimes.
That’s, in fact, how Americans surrendered their rights and liberties to the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA. It was all done under the notion of keeping us safe from the worldwide communist conspiracy that, U.S. officials said, was based in Moscow and that was, they said, hell-bent on conquering the United States and the rest of the world.
And now we are witnessing more of this phenomenon in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, especially with respect to the dictatorial powers that are being wielded and exercised by President Biden.
In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden has unilaterally imposed a broad array of economic sanctions on Russia, measures that are designed to inflict death, suffering, and economic impoverishment on Russian officials and on the Russian people.
Yet, where does the power to impose those sanctions come from? Under our system of government, the president’s powers are supposed to emanate from the Constitution. That’s the document that sets forth the powers that are delegated to federal officials, including the president.
If a particular power isn’t enumerated in the Constitution, then it cannot legally be exercised. Does the Constitution delegate to the president the power to impose sanctions on a foreign regime that has illegally or wrongfully invaded another country? A careful reading of the Constitution reveals that the document does not delegate any such a power to the president.
Thus, where does the power to impose sanctions on Russia come from? It certainly doesn’t come from the much-vaunted “war on terrorism” or even the old, outdated “war on communism.”
I will tell you where it comes from. It comes from the Pentagon and the CIA. As I pointed out in my blog post yesterday, it is the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — that is, the national-security branch of the federal government — that are ultimately in charge of the federal government, especially when it comes to foreign affairs. Such being the case, Biden’s dictatorial power to impose sanctions on Russia emanates from the Pentagon and the CIA, where the real source of power within the federal government exists.
After all, notice something important: At no time has Biden gone to Congress and asked for legislation authorizing him to impose sanctions on Russia. He has simply done so unilaterally, with the full authorization and support of the Pentagon and the CIA.
That’s what’s called pure dictatorial conduct — i.e., the power of a nation’s ruler to take whatever action he wants against a foreign regime on his own initiative.
Thus, consider the irony. The Pentagon’s and the CIA’s assets in the mainstream press lament Russian President Vladimir Putin’s exercise of dictatorial powers while, at the same time, fully supporting Biden’s exercise of dictatorial powers.
Consider the situation. One foreign nation-state has invaded another foreign nation-state. That war does not involve the United States. Nonetheless, Biden has used that conflict thousands of miles away from the United States to exercise dictatorial powers in form of economic sanctions against the invading power. As a practical matter, Biden’s sanctions are an act of war against the nation-state that has done the invading, especially given that his sanctions are intended to inflict death, suffering, and economic privation on the invading power. His sanctions are also a grave infringement on the economic liberty of the American people, not to mention the fact that his reckless exercise of this dictatorial power poses a grave danger of leading America into an all-out nuclear war with Russia.
Don’t count on the federal judiciary to enforce the Constitution in this regard. The Supreme Court is fully aware that the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA are in charge. If anyone in the United States brings a legal action in federal district court to enjoin Biden’s exercise of dictatorial powers, the federal judiciary will immediately dismiss the suit for “lack of standing.”
Don’t count on Congress to enforce the Constitution in this regard. The members of Congress, many of whom are self-designated assets of the national-security establishment, understand fully that they play a subservient and supportive role with respect to the Pentagon’s and CIA’s handling of foreign affairs.
What about the American people? Unfortunately, it’s the same phenomenon we witnessed throughout the Cold War. In their concern over the fate of the Ukrainian people, all too many Americans not only blind themselves to the role that the Pentagon and the CIA played in bringing about this crisis but, equally important, to how the crisis is used to destroy their own rights and liberties, especially at the hands of a president who is exercising dictatorial powers that are emanating not from the Constitution but instead from the military-intelligence establishment. To paraphrase Johann Goethe, none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who unwittingly cheer the destruction of their own rights and liberties at the hands of their own government.