| What Does Congress Do? |
24 March 2003
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Congress Negligent on Iraq War
As every high school student in America knows, but apparently the news has yet to reach Capitol Hill, the US constitution reserves for the congress the right to declare war. So perhaps, in the massive explosion of news last week, one might have missed it, but when precisely did congress vote to permit the war with Iraq?
Formal declarations of war are apparently things of the past. The last one was in 1941 when FDR got a declaration of war passed against the Empire of Japan following Pearl Harbor. Since then, there have been various resolutions, most notoriously LBJ's Tonkin Gulf vote, by which congress lets the president commit US troops without a formal declaration. This time, though, congress seems to have forgotten that it, not the White House, has the authority to send the armed forces in. The Senate got around to voting on a resolution on Thursday expressing its support of the troops at whom hostile fire is directed, and the House appears to have done less than that.
The lawyers at the White House most assuredly will have arguments that previous votes dating from 1991 and 1992 as well as last October's resolutions are still effective or that the War Powers Act gives Mr. Bush three months to use the army before having to ask congress for permission. They may even be right. However, the disturbing silence from Capitol Hill this past month, from the legislature that so often does silly things merely to protect its prerogatives, let this war happen without its express consent.
Perhaps a constitutional amendment is in order, transferring the war-making powers to the White House. Post-September 11, congressional deliberations may simply take too long to provide for the nation's security, and there is evidence to suggest that the war with Iraq will not be the last one of its kind. War as a legal condition is, at best, a fiction created by lawyers, but the constitution of the US is not. If it is to mean anything, it must be followed. And when circumstances warrant, it must be altered rather than ignored.