[ex-snook]

We’ve been on wild goose chases ever since Presidents stopped asking Congress for a formal declaration of war. If there is any part of the Constitution that conservatives should emphasis, it is that Congressional action. Instead we have been using various Constitutional work-arounds for the President to commit military forces. These do not unite the nation but foster political second guessing and opposition.

Somehow we are expected to give blood and treasure to anyone who wants to start a revolution and get us to bail them out. Others expect us to provide job exporting trade deficit to the world. Regardless of who is President, we need to rebuild America to be the strongest in the world and that includes the resurrection of MADE IN USA. If we had exported our factories to China, Germany and Japan we would have lost WW II. We need American nationalism not world adventurism.

[lepton]

“We’ve been on wild goose chases ever since Presidents stopped asking Congress for a formal declaration of war.”

You mean Jefferson?

[Jim Noble]

We’ve been on wild goose chases ever since Presidents stopped asking Congress for a formal declaration of war. If there is any part of the Constitution that conservatives should emphasis, it is that Congressional action

+1. One of my favorite subjects.

Read this: "the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United states."

One of the things missing from the last 70 years of military failures is the phrase "all the resources of the country are hereby pledged". The President cannot do that. In the theology of the American system, Congress is us. Through representation, they act on our behalf and exercise powers that belong to us, one of which is the War Power.

The President can deploy armed forces, but he cannot give those forces the total commitment that war requires.

Also notice the words "authorized AND DIRECTED". That describes a correct relation between the power to initiate war and the power to carry it out. Also missing this past 70 years or so.