Liberty Maven

A recent discussion brought up the argument that the President is authorized by the Constitution to declare war against the notion that it is Congress’ job. In Article 1 Section 8 the Constitution states that the power to declare war rests with Congress. In Article 2 Section 2 the President is given the task of being the Commander-In-Chief of all the armed forces.

Lawyers and politicians look towards partisanship rather than the Constitution’s original intent when arguing this point. We learn in grade school that the power to declare war lies with the legislature and the 2+2 doesn’t equal 4 crowd has derailed that thought in many US adults.

A good example of this partisanship is to compare what Republicans were saying about Bill Clinton when he went into Kosovo and what many Democrats are saying today about George Bush going into Iraq.

When Clinton went in to Kosovo the Republicans balked and touted the Constitution granting the power to declare war, not the President. Now, with Iraq many of those same Republicans are arguing the opposite. This is partisanship at its worse.

Reading what the founding fathers said on the subject reveals that they originally intended for Congress to declare war and for the President to command the armed forces once war was declared.

An excellent, albeit long, article on the subject, written in 1995 makes the point very clearly. Read it here.

Also, a related speech given by Ron Paul in the House of Representatives in 2002 shows not only his belief that Congress has the sole power to declare war, but proves to be quite foretelling of the issues we are facing in Iraq today. Read it here.