My eyesight is fine. Bolding is not necessary.
I do not agree that the President always has the authority to throw any American citizen in a military prison, for no reason, without judicial review, forever. Please cite the article of the Constitution giving him this authority.
Of course, he does have the power; power is not the same as authority. And of course past Presidents have abused power. This does not make it right.
This Law of War you speak of applies to nation-states. Surely you can see the danger of applying it to a "War on Terror" against no clearly defined enemy that will surely never end. Can you name a politician likely to become President that will ever surrender this kind of power?
This decision will be cited by whichever President decides to use it to make people he/she doesn't like disappear. We are going to have to decide if we want to live in a free republic, or a banana republic.
Yes, I can "name a President who surrendered this kind of power." His name is Thomas Jefferson. And he did not surrender the power. Congress took it away from him, as Congress has done with respect to all declared wars in history -- except the Korean War which is not ended, but only is a "truce."
The War Against the Babary Pirates was declared in almost identical fashion to the War Against Terrorism. Those and several other declarations were quoted in my United Press International article on 19 September, 2002, and also posted on FreeRepublic. The Barbary Pirate War ended with two peace treaties, submitted by the President and approved by the Senate. This war will end the same way.
Please do your homework. Read the declarations of war and the histories, both of which have already been posted on FR. Then you will understand the constitutional legitimacy of the current declaration of war.
Congressman Billybob
Click for latest column on UPI, "Incision Decision in the Senate" (Now up on UPI wire, and FR.)
As the politician formerly known as Al Gore has said, my book, "to Restore Trust in America"