Checks and Balances

Doubtless with November in mind, the US House of Representatives has voted through a resolution against the President's sending of military advisers to Iraq in a "sustained combat role" unless he can first cajole Congress into authorising it. Congress is a little concerned that, over the past few years, it has ceded too much of its authority to the executive branch on the matter of killing industrial quantities of brown people. Nevertheless, the resolution is purely symbolic and does not have the force of law; so the re-accomplishment of George and Tony's mission is safe from Congressional meddling should the oil companies decide once more to exert their democratic will. In our own Mother of Parliaments, of course, the system is a little more rigorous, requiring the Prime Minister to persuade a simple majority of vassals, seat-warmers and expenses claimants that Western Civilisation is once again in peril.