I have heard it argued that the real value of a war declaration gives the government the ability to do certain things that they’re not otherwise supposed to do, in terms of individual citizen’s rights- such as phone tapping, detentions, etc. Under a war declaration, there’s a mechanism to return the country to a state of freedom after the war is over.
I’m not sure about this, but this is what I’ve heard others say.
The real value of a Declaration of War is that it commits Congress to a cause.
Without it politicians can backtrack when things either go badly or it become politically expedient to do so.
With it, they can’t (effectively) complain about destruction, devastation, or even costs.
FR had many great discussions on this back in 2002-3 and back then I was against the resolution of force as I predicted then that the dems would turn tail on this as soon as it was convenient for them to do so.
And they did.