Congress and war

The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) grants Congress the power to declare war. The president derives the power to direct the military as commander in chief after a congressional declaration of war (Article II, Section 2). We live in the dangerous shadow of failed undeclared wars, starting with the Korean War to the current “War on Terror.”

Threats from the USSR made it necessary to give presidents the authority to retaliate to a nuclear attack because there would not be enough time for congressional action. However, it is time for Congress to reassert its constitutional authority in order to avoid a first-strike presidential war. Congress needs to come out of hiding and live up to its constitutional responsibilities. Unfortunately, we have learned that we can’t trust a single person, like President Johnson, to tell the truth about military strikes on U.S. forces. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, which never occurred, was the pretext for making the undeclared Vietnam War an American enterprise.

It is harder to get the many members of Congress vote to declare war. That is precisely why our founders gave Congress, not the president, constitutional war-making power.

David Webb

Spokane