House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated late last week that “there is no previous authority for the president, any president, to go into Iran.” Senator Hillary Clinton re-iterated this view from the Senate floor saying it would be a mistake “of historical proportion” for the President to think that the Iraq War Resolution of 2002 allows the “use of force against Iran without further Congressional authorization.” Both of these comments were made in response to President Bush’s remarks that he intended to do something about Iran arming and aiding Iraqi insurgents who are killing American soldiers. Pelosi and Clinton’s statements are also made in the context of Iran—the number one state sponsor of terrorism—thumbing its nose at the world community, ignoring the most recent United Nations’ deadline to cease enriching uranium and charging full speed ahead to develop nuclear weapons. One thing is certain in this contest of wills between Democrats in Congress and the President over Iran, Bush does have the authority to take military action based his position as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces under the Constitution.

Congress specifically recognized this authority in 2001 following the 9-11 attacks when it passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force. The resolution provides as a matter of fact that “the President has authority under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States.” Congress re-affirmed this view in the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, to which Senator Clinton refers, by citing and quoting the 2001 Use of Force resolution word-for-word “the President has authority…” Both Speaker Pelosi and Senator Clinton voted for the language of the 2001 resolution along with every other member of Congress but one.

The language cited from the resolutions above really just acknowledges a well established legal precedent that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to order military strikes against other nations without specific congressional authorization, particularly when protecting American citizens or responding to attacks against them. In the earliest days of the republic, President Jefferson dispatched warships off the coasts of the Barbary States in North Africa to engage and if necessary destroy their ships marauding and attacking American merchant vessels and taking our sailors prisoner for ransom. More recently, President Reagan ordered air strikes against Libya in 1986 after he determined that its leader, Muammar Qaddafi, was responsible for bombings in Europe including one targeting American soldiers in Germany. In 1998, President Clinton authorized air strikes against an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan believed to be used in manufacturing chemical weapons in response to that terrorist organization bombing two of our embassies in Africa. While some questioned his motives given the timing of the strikes (facing impeachment), few doubted his authority to do so.

Iran’s current actions and words indicate its terrorist designs are not limited to wreaking havoc against American forces in Iraq, but include the United States itself. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in addition to stating publicly on various occasions that he wants to “wipe Israel off the face of the map,” also said “Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?…[Y]ou had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved.” He believes, as chronicled by Joel Rosenberg in his new book Epicenter and covered by the major media outlets (like Time, CNN, the Washington Post, and National Public Radio) that he will ultimately receive divine aid in this struggle. Ahmadinejad thinks that the Twelfth Imam (an Islamic Messiah) is about to appear to aid the forces of Islam in a climatic end of the age battle against the Zionists and the West and that he, Ahmadinejad, has been chosen to start the fight and create enough chaos, so this Imam will appear and aid in the war to bring all into submission to Islam.

Now any rational President of the United States charged with the protecting the nation would need to sit up and take notice of someone like Ahmadinejad making those kinds of threats while expressing those kinds of beliefs and feverously seeking nuclear weapons. President Bush has been very patient and forthright in his desire to see the standoff solved diplomatically, but time may be running out. The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said this week that Iran will likely have enough fissile material to make a bomb by the end of this year. No one is sure how long thereafter it will take them to actually have one, but given that Russia is actively aiding Iran in the effort, it may be very soon. Pakistan, India, and North Korea all entered the realm of those weapons possessing nuclear bombs with little notice to the outside world.

If the President, in his role as Commander-in-Chief, should determine that the time for a strategic air strike against Iran’s nuclear weapon’s facilities has come, it would be the height of irresponsibility to put the matter before the 535 members of Congress for their consideration. In an operation of this nature, secrecy and surprise would be of the essence for the strikes to be successful.

One would like to believe that any thoughtful citizen and certainly the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Senator Clinton could see that the President faces a very dangerous situation with Iran and needs all the power and political leverage he possibly muster to protect the nation he is sworn to defend. Neither the Speaker nor a senator will be held responsible if the Iran manages to detonate a nuclear weapon in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York or anywhere in the United States, the President will. With responsibility comes authority to act and prevent such a scenario. President Bush has the authority.