ACTION ALERT:
Reform the Warfare State! Pass the NSRAA!
Win Without War
(August 10, 2023) — The checks and balances that underpin our democracy are wildly out of whack.
You know it, and we know it. Luckily, Reps. McGovern (D-MA) and Mace (R-SC) have just re-introduced the National Security Reforms & Accountability Act (NSRAA) to recalibrate a broken “separation of powers.”
This can’t happen fast enough: The New York Times reports that Trump and his cronies are planning to consolidate executive power if he wins the presidency — it’s a glaring reminder that we need to get our house in order now, before it’s too late.
White House after White House, the list of unilateral decisions that underpin a war-first foreign policy has only grown: George Bush Sr.’s interventions in Panama and Somalia, Obama’s airstrikes in Yemen and Libya, Trump’s assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, Biden bombing Syria and Iraq.
All of these actions — taken without explicit congressional approval — illustrate the expansion of presidential war authority. It’s time for a reset, and the NSRAA is how we get there. Your voice has a critical role to play, so join us.
Our democracy’s strength lies in the power of the PEOPLE to influence consequential decisions — and nowhere is this more important than when it comes to war and peace.
Today, however, we find ourselves in a world where those decisions all too often fall into the unilateral hands of one person: the President. Here’s just a glimpse of what that has meant:
- Billions of dollars in weapons sales to human rights abusers, like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, India, and Egypt;
- Indefinite national emergencies like the one Trump used to justify his racist border walls and deadly sanctions on entire populations; and
- Endless global wars that have caused untold suffering and only made the world less safe and secure.
The weight and consequences of decisions like these require collective input, broad scrutiny, and shared responsibility.
Declaring a national emergency should be hard. Selling deadly weapons should be hard. Going to war should be hard.
Our democracy thrives when its checks and balances work as intended, so let’s reset them to make it hard for any one person to act alone and without consequence.
Right now, the power over ALL those decisions rests in the hands of just ONE person — at least until the NSRAA is passed. Can you take 30 seconds to reset the balance today?
Thank you for working for peace,
Raimy, Eric, Stephen, and the Win Without War team
