US Military Families, Congressmen Sue Bush for War Against Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 05, 2003

US Military Families, Congressmen Sue Bush for War Against Iraq

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Some family members of US soldiers and their legal representatives Tuesday vowed to challenge the authority of US President George W. Bush to wage a war against Iraq by suing the president for rushing into the war without congressional approval.

Briefing reporters at the UN Correspondents Association, John Bonifaz, leading attorney of the plaintiffs, said the US Constitution requires that the president should first go to the congress and there should be a debate on whether to send the nation into war which would put thousands of US soldiers in danger.

He said a resolution passed by the congress last October did not specifically declare a war but unlawfully ceded the decision to President Bush.

He noted that never before had the President of the United States planned such a premeditated first-strike invasion of another country, the conquering and occupation of that country. As a result, now more than ever the requirement of the constitution dictated that the President must comply with the law and go to the congress first to seek the congressional declaration.

"A war against Iraq without a congressional declaration of war would be illegal and unconstitutional," he said.

Among other speakers was Nancy Lessin, the stepmother of a 25-year-old Marine who is currently stationed in the Gulf region and being prepared for the battle. Holding photos of her son and an Iraqi girl, she said that as parents they worried about her son, about the more than 200,000 troops who were about to deploy, and about all the innocent civilians in Iraq who are in harm's way.

She urged the international community, including the UN Security Council, to take notice that the President of the United States is using "unconstitutional" means if he launches an unprovoked war in Iraq.

Lessin is one of the co-founders of "Military Families Speak Out," an organization whose members are relatives of soldiers and are opposed to a war against Iraq.

A coalition of some US Congressmen and US soldiers' parents from seven states are suing President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in an effort to stop a war against Iraq. US Representatives John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich are leading members of the Congress who serve as plaintiffs. On Feb. 21, 2003, six more Congressmen added their names to the lawsuit, doubling the number of congressional plaintiffs suing the President. Nine parents of US soldiers also joined the case.

The case is being argued by a three-judge panel at a federal appeal court in Boston.

The US Congress has not formally declared a war since World War II. The War Powers Act, passed in 1973 in response to the Vietnam War and the actions of President Richard Nixon, requires the President to seek congressional approval before or shortly after ordering military action abroad.

A similar lawsuit filed against Bush's father before the last Gulf War by 54 members of the Congress was rejected by a federal judge in 1990.

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