The NDAA Proposed Merger of the U.S. and Israeli Military is Strategically Unwise and Inherently Unconstitutional
Section 219 creates a framework for permanent military integration that weakens American sovereignty, blurs constitutional accountability, and places the nation's independent decision making at risk.
This article is Part 2 in a three part series on the proposed merger of U.S and Israeli intelligence, military and biotechnology. Read Part 1 here
Prior to the American Revolution being fought on battlefields, it was fought as an argument about sovereignty.
Who decides the fate of a nation? Who commands its armies? Who determines when its citizens go to war and when they remain at peace?
The Founders answered those questions with remarkable clarity. In a republic, sovereignty belongs to the people and is exercised through constitutional institutions accountable to them. Section 219 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2027 threatens to undermine the foundational principles of our republic and our constitutional democracy.
Advocates for Section 219 describe it as a strategic partnership, a modernization of military cooperation between the United States and Israel. Yet the language of the provision reaches far beyond cooperation. It calls for the integration of military planning, intelligence sharing, technological development, procurement systems, research capabilities, and strategic operations in ways that blur the distinction between two sovereign nations.
This is not merely a policy question, it is a constitutional one.
America has alliances with many nations. We cooperate with allies. We conduct joint exercises. We share intelligence. However, there is a profound difference between cooperation and integration.
Cooperation preserves independent decision making.
Integration creates pressure toward shared decision making and shared consequences.
The Constitution was deliberately designed to prevent precisely this type of entanglement.
The President serves as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. Congress possesses the authority to declare war. Together these provisions were meant to ensure that decisions involving American lives, American treasure, and American military power remain accountable to the American people.
Section 219 moves the nation in the opposite direction. It creates permanent structures through which military, intelligence, technological, and strategic functions become increasingly intertwined with those of another government. Even if no formal transfer of command occurs, the practical effect is to make American decision making dependent upon relationships and commitments that exist far beyond the reach of American voters.
There are at least nine reasons why Congress should reject Section 219 of the NDAA:.
IT VIOLATES THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF CLAUSE
Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution designates the President as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.
Congress cannot constitutionally dilute, share, or transfer command responsibilities through ordinary legislation. The armed forces of the United States must remain exclusively accountable to constitutional authority established by the American people.
IT BYPASSES THE TREATY PROCESS
The Constitution provides a mechanism for creating major international commitments: treaties ratified by two thirds of the Senate.
If Congress believes permanent military integration with any foreign nation is necessary, it should present that proposal openly and subject it to the scrutiny required by the Constitution.
Congress cannot use a spending bill to accomplish what the Constitution requires to be debated and approved through the treaty process.
IT CREATES PROBLEMS OF AUTHORITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Foreign officials do not swear an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.
Yet military integration creates circumstances in which foreign officers, planners, intelligence officials, and strategic personnel may influence decisions affecting American troops, intelligence assets, military technologies, operational planning and decisions to use military force.
The Framers established safeguards to ensure that authority over American military power remained accountable to American institutions and American voters.
Section 219 weakens those safeguards.
IT VIOLATES THE PRINCIPLE OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY
Congress cannot delegate core sovereign responsibilities to another government.
The defense of the nation, decisions involving military force, intelligence operations, and national security policy are among the most important powers entrusted to the federal government.
A nation that cannot independently determine matters of war and peace cannot truly be considered sovereign.
IT INCREASES THE RISK OF FUTURE WARS
The Founders understood the danger.
In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned against permanent foreign attachments that could pull the United States into conflicts not of its own choosing. His concern was not isolationism. It was independence.
Our first president understood that foreign entanglements have a way of creating obligations that gradually supersede national interests.
That warning has particular relevance today.
The recent escalation with Iran demonstrates how rapidly regional conflicts can draw the United States toward broader military commitments. Every new layer of institutional integration increases the likelihood that future conflicts involving Israel become, in practical terms, American conflicts as well.
IT RISKS SUBORDINATING AMERICAN INTERESTS TO FOREIGN PRIORITIES
The issue is not whether one supports Israel.
The issue is whether any foreign nation should be granted a permanent place within executive, military, intelligence, technological, and strategic structures that are constitutionally intended to serve the United States alone.
The first responsibility of the United States government is to protect the security and wellbeing of the American people. Foreign policy should be guided by American interests, American laws, and American constitutional principles.
IT THREATENS DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY
When sovereignty is diluted, accountability disappears.
Citizens can no longer identify who is responsible for decisions. Power becomes dispersed through networks, agreements, and institutions beyond public control.
Democracy weakens because the connection between the voter and the decision maker is broken.
The Constitution deliberately places decisions involving war and national defense within institutions accountable to the American people. Section 219 weakens that connection.
IT IMPOSES ENORMOUS FINANCIAL COSTS
The United States has spent decades engaged in costly military interventions throughout the Middle East.
Trillions of dollars have been spent. Thousands of American lives have been lost. Countless civilians have perished. Yet the pressure for deeper involvement continues.
This is especially troubling at a moment when the national debt exceeds forty trillion dollars. Every additional military commitment carries a financial cost. Every escalation requires resources that must ultimately be borrowed, taxed, or diverted from domestic priorities.
Americans struggling with inflation, housing costs, healthcare expenses, and declining infrastructure deserve a government focused first on their security and prosperity.
IT BETRAYS THE SPIRIT OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
The timing could not be more ironic.
As America marks the 250th anniversary of its independence, Congress is considering legislation that undermines our independence.
The Revolution was fought to secure self government. The Constitution was written to preserve it.
Sovereignty is not an outdated concept. It is the foundation of democratic accountability.
The question before us is larger than Israel. Larger than any single administration. Larger than any current conflict.
It is whether the United States will remain a nation whose military power is directed exclusively by constitutional institutions accountable to the American people, or whether we will gradually surrender that independence through permanent foreign integration that the Constitution neither contemplated nor authorizes.
A nation that cannot control its own military decisions cannot claim to be sovereign - and that is a core reason why Section 219 should be rejected.
TAKE ACTION
The merger is timed to be voted on the week of June 29, just before the Fourth of July.
Find your member of Congress: House Senate
It is urgent that you call your congressional representative today at 202-224-3121 and tell them to Strip Section 219 (House) or Section 1217 (Senate) from the 2027 NDAA.
Congressmen Tom Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) will offer an amendment in the House to remove Section 219. Please tell your U.S. Representative: Support the Massie-Khanna Amendment to the NDAA.
Optional telephone script for the House of Representatives:
My name is ______ and I am a constituent. I am calling to urge Representative ______ to support the Massie-Khanna Amendment and to remove Section 219 from the NDAA. Congress should defend American sovereignty, uphold the Constitution, and reject any measure that integrates the executive and military functions of the United States with those of a foreign government. Please pass my message to the Representative. Thank you.
Inherently unconstitutional is what Israeli influence through AIPAC is all about, for decades at least. The Noahide Laws in 1991 is one hidden example, the USA Patriot Act and so many others are all blatantly unconstitutional. That they still stand suggests the federal Judiciary is every bit as corrupt as the other 2 branches.
Thank you Mr. Kucinich, for speaking out. Pardon my cynicism, but I think it's too damn late.
The most toxic piece of legislation yet fantasized by the radical Republican administration. Absolutely unconstitutional, ill-conceived, and reckless in the extreme. Reminiscent of the alliance between Hitlerian nazism and Mussolini's fascism. A disgrace and a danger to the authority of the US military and the security of the United States.