====== FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ======

America First Party
1630 A 30th Street #111
Boulder, Colorado 80301
http://www.AmericaFirstParty.org

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Congress: Prevent War with Iran, Rescind the War Powers Act

Boulder, CO - Indicators of imminent war with Iran increase the urgent necessity of using all good means to avoid this foreign policy disaster. The likelihood of engagement with Iran is heightened by the policy of allowing only a few to make our nation's strategic decisions. Under the War Powers Act, the same individuals who made the decision to go to war with Iraq are empowered to "preemptively" attack Iran with the pretense of their choosing. To prevent this calamity and the possibility of a regional Middle East war, the War Powers Act should be rescinded.

Our Founding Fathers provided for a separation of powers. In matters of initiating war, it was established that Congress would need to make an affirmative declaration in order for a state of war to exist -- it was not left to the President to decide. Unfortunately, Congress has habitually and willfully abdicated this role since the Korean "police action." Congress's delinquency was formalized in 1973 with the War Powers Act, which allows the President to initiate and prosecute a war for 60 days without congressional approval.

National Chairman Jonathan Hill stated, "Who would think that the leaders of this country, who so often speak glowingly of promoting 'democracy,' would prefer the authoritarian model of vesting in one man the power of committing the nation to war, rather than entrusting this role to Congress, as the Constitution requires?"

National Press Secretary John Schweingrouber stated, "Iran is not a threat to the United States, and so war with Iran is not a lawful, constitutional use of our military. Congress should not sit by in a comatose state as our international prestige and credibility are again tarnished with yet another unjust war, based on unproven claims of a WMD program. It is high time for Congress to reassert its proper role by rescinding the War Powers Act."

The America First Party platform states that "the President has no authority to announce a 'war' of any kind, or to designate any person or organization as 'enemies of the United States,' such powers being vested solely in the Congress, and then only by formal Declaration of War; lacking which, the President is powerless to designate ... any geographic region as a 'battlefield.'"

Contacts:
Jonathan Hill, National Chairman, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 4
John Schweingrouber, Press Secretary, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 2

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