Fast forward not so many years to 1950 and the Korean "conflict". The Truman administration committed U.S. forces to aid the South Koreans without a deceleration of war from Congress. This was not the first or last time. One can go a far back as Jefferson to find U.S. military forces being sent to fight foreign conflicts without declaring war. The difference is that since WWII, the U.S. has accepted the president making the decision on his own to go to war as status quo. In fact when President Obama went to Congress for approval to take military action in Syria this past year, many looked at him as weak. I say it was a good decision that showed some backbone not to take the easy route.
The Constitution states that Congress has the power to declare war and the President is the commander-in-chief of the military. Many think this means the President can still use military forces even without a declaration of war. There is even the War Powers Act which states the rules by which the President must follow once he has committed U.S. troops to a conflict. The ability of one person to declare war, I mean commit troops to conflicts, has many consequences. As we have seen over the past 12 1/2 years, giving one person the power to make the unilateral decisions to invade countries costs lots of money. When one person decides where to invade, they are likely to invade as many countries as possible. The conflicts rarely have specific goals and if they do, those goals can be changed at the desecration of the one who authorized the invasion in the first place. When there is a vote, the wars have specified enemies and goals. It's more difficult to change either. There are also less wars due to a higher standard to either start them or to get involved in the them.
I am not saying having a vote on a war makes the conflict more noble than a conflict that is started by the decision of one person. In fact, many times presidents have had good intentions committing forces to an area without Congress. What I am saying is that we would have less conflicts, shorter conflicts and more reassurance that the war is necessary.
Like I stated earlier, the Constitution calls for Congress to declare war. Why an amendment? It is to settle the debate if the President needs Congress. Also, there are now nukes, CIA and drones. The amendment needs to state that the President can use military forces in case of invasion by a foreign government but he must seek a deceleration of war immediately. It must also state that Congress must declare war before U.S. forces can be deployed to active combat areas or take any kind of hostile action against a foreign nation that has not already declared war on the U.S. We need an amendment before we find our nation in another decade plus long war.
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