Broder - Congress's Cop-Out On War

[pruner]

On this anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, orators are reminding us that December 1941 was the last time a president asked Congress for a formal declaration of war. The war in Iraq, like all the others since World War II, was fought without such a vote.

The congressional decision last autumn to authorize the use of force in Iraq remains controversial, as the Democratic presidential candidates who supported it -- Rep. Dick Gephardt and Sens. Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and John Edwards -- are criticized by Howard Dean and others who place themselves on the other side.

Louis Fisher, the authority on congressional-executive relations at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, is one who argues that the failure was not personal but institutional. While joining those who challenge the intelligence the Bush administration used to justify the preemptive attack on Saddam Hussein's regime, Fisher is even more critical of the lawmakers who sanctioned the action.

In the fall issue of Political Science Quarterly, he writes: "Month after month, the administration released claims that were unproven" about weapons of mass destruction and links between Iraq and al Qaeda. "For its part, Congress seemed incapable of analyzing a presidential proposal and protecting its institutional powers."

"The decision to go to war," he concludes, "cast a dark shadow over the health of U.S. political institutions and the celebrated system of democratic debate and checks and balances. The dismal performances of the executive and legislative branches raise disturbing questions about the capacity and desire of the United States to function as a republican form of government."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40180-2003Dec5.html

[CTLawGuy]

1. good post

I always thought that Congress has been in the habit of shirking its constitutional duty to declare war. Its Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the constitution.

It was put in there to keep the president from unilaterally attacking everyone. the decision to go to war is a serious one and should be considered very carefully.

Why is Congress afraid to declare formal war?

[Iverson]

2. ohmigosh!

Could this mean that the United States Senate really isn't the greatest deliberative body in the world?

:wtf: