IDEAS
Marlantes was a Marine rifle platoon commander in Vietnam. He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star with combat “V” for valor, two Navy Commendation medals for valor, and two Purple Hearts. He is the author of three best-selling books: Matterhorn, What It Is Like to Go to War, and Deep River. The first two are taught at the Naval War College, West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, various universities and high schools, and are on the reading list of the Commandant of the Marine Corps. He is featured in several important documentaries, including the Emmy nominated Going to War, by Twin Cities Public Television, the History Channel’s Vietnam in HD, and Ken Burns’s The Vietnam War.

Congress has rightfully condemned President Trump’s decision to abandon the Kurds in Syria. But Congress has been complicit in this decision.

Over the past 70 years it has ceded too much power to the Presidency in the areas of war-making, treaties and agreements, and executive privilege. Had Congress not abandoned its Constitutional obligations, it is unlikely we’d be in this current pickle, the result of too much power in the hands of one person. Congress must acknowledge its own fault and fix it.

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