By Ivan Eland
President Barack Obama's claim that he
doesn't need congressional authorization for his current war in Iraq and Syria
is troubling. The country's founders would pass out upon hearing his claim that
the post-9/11 congressional approval of force in 2001 against the perpetrators
of those attacks and their abettors and the congressional resolution approving
George W. Bush's invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2003 give him the current
authority for a very different war against very different people. However,
Obama is not the first president to believe that he has the rather imperial
authority for war by executive fiat.
Up until 1950, for major conflicts,
presidents followed the nation's founders' intent in the U.S. Constitution to
obtain a declaration of war from Congress. For the Korean War, however, Harry
Truman, really the first imperial president, decided that this vital
constitutional requirement was optional. Unfortunately, as I note in my new
book - Recarving
Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty - once a
bad precedent is set, meaning that the chief executive gets away with an
unconstitutional act, future presidents will cite it in carrying out their own
questionable actions. [more...]
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