Does the President of the United States need Congressional authorization to assassinate a terrorist leader?

President Trump Authorizes Assassination of Qassem Soleimani

Democrats in the US Legislature state that President Trump should have sought Congressional approval for the action taken to assassinate Soleimani.

Jennifer Rubin – opinion writer for the Washington Post – wrote in What responsible Democrats should be saying about Iran: "To date, virtually all statements from Democrats in the House and Senate reflected acknowledgment that Soleimani was an enemy of the United States who deserved his fate but that the administration acted without consultation with Congress..."

When we were first informed that Soleimani had been assassinated, I heard several TV News Anchors making the same accusation that the administration acted without 'consulting' congress. What needs to be addressed is whether there is a precedent for this 'consultation' in similar circumstances.

Previous President Obama Authorizes Assassination of Osama Bin Laden

President Obama authorized the assassination of Osama bin Laden without Congressional approval.

As I read the article on the planning for the assassination of Osama bin Laden, I was struck that although it was made very clear that the plans were not published or even much known outside the White House, there was no mention of a need to ask for Congressional Approval.

Maybe That Is Not Strictly True

Tom Rogan writes an Opinion for the Washington Examiner entitled Why Trump didn't need congressional approval to kill Qassim Soleimani and makes the assertion that President Obama did have authorization for the Bin Laden assassination due to permissions granted as a result of the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center buildings. He goes further to assert that while there is an on-going authorization for covert action on Iran, the assassination of Soleimani did not trigger a need for authorization because it was both overt and it's scope was very narrow. Read the entire article (link above) for more clarity on this topic.

Here We Go Again

Several years ago – 2016 to be exact – Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.

Since that election, Trump detractors have been claiming he has no proper authority to do the job of POTUS as he understands the position. He has been defamed for border security work, for enacting tax deductions that are supposedly dangerous, for debilitating "Obama Care" without creating a total healthcare for all citizens, for interacting with world leaders without utilizing political correctness, and now for assassinating a known terrorist.

What Is The Difference

Nahal Toosi, Daniel Lippman and Wesley Morgan wrote in their article Trump takes massive gamble with killing of Iranian commander (near the end of the piece) the following quote: “Soleimani was an enemy of the United States. That’s not a question,” tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). "The question is this – as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?”

There is the difference. Osama Bin Laden was not a member of a national government. Qassem Soleimani was a high-ranking member of the Iranian national government. Bin Laden was independent of a specific nation. Soleimani was intricately aligned with one. Assassinating Bin Laden could not be viewed as an attack against a nation. Assassinating Soleimani can be seen as an attack against Iran, and will possibly be described by Iran as an act of war.

Why Does Trump Focus Against Iran

Apparently, according to Time Magazine: "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 80 years of age, disabled by a saboteur’s bomb blast and lit by a righteous certainty, holds the title of Supreme Leader of Iran. But he has quietly emerged as the most powerful person in the Middle East..."

This article makes the point that the current Iranian Ayatollah has no regard for President Trump, and is not afraid to lash out at any country that stands in the way of the path he intends to follow.

Just the kind of despot no one wants to find in their house. Since "politics makes strange bedfellows" I get the impression that world leaders could be seen to share the same bed or at least the same house.

What Is The Endgame

We don't really know—those of us who are not in on the secrets of politics.

If I thought I had an answer, I would share it.

When I discover it, I'll tell you.