Afghanistan Invasion and Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15

Michael S. Rozeff
LRC Blog
February 27, 2012

The New York Times has this quote: “Americans are invaders, and jihad against Americans is an obligation,” from Abdul Sattar Khawasi, a member of Parliament from the Ghorband district in Parwan Province.

Now compare the U.S. Constitution. It grants Congress the power to repel invasions: “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” The close correspondence of Khawasi’s remark with the U.S. Constitution is of interest.

What’s an invasion? “An instance of invading a country or region with an armed force.” Does this apply to the US and NATO entering and fighting in Afghanistan these last 11 years? Yes.

By the way, it might well be that, apart from certain well-defined instances of piracy on the high seas and offenses against the law of nations, all the US armed forces are constitutionally restricted to repelling invasions and that such was the original intent of the Constitution. All the U.S. forces stationed overseas may be unconstitutional.

This article was posted: Monday, February 27, 2012 at 3:16 pm

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