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View Full Version : What’s So Important About a Declaration of War?




sevin
06-28-2011, 09:11 PM
I agreed with Ron Paul that congress should declare war (something it hasn't done since WWII), but I supposed I didn't know why I agreed with that. Because it's in the constitution, I suppose. But this article: What’s So Important About a Declaration of War? (http://www.tommullen.net/featured/whats-so-important-about-a-declaration-of-war/) really clarified it for me and I think it's something everyone should understand.

From the article:


The intent of the declaration of war power is for the government to have an adjudication process for war analogous to a criminal trial for domestic crimes. Evidence must be presented that the nation in question has committed overt acts of war against the United States. The Congress must deliberate on that evidence and then vote on whether or not a state of war exists. The actual declaration of war is analogous to a conviction at a criminal trial. The Congress issues the “verdict” and the president is called upon to employ the military. To wage war without a declaration of war is akin to a lynching: there has been no finding of guilt before force has been employed in response.

Herein lies the difference between H.J. Res. 114 [when Congress authorized the president to use military force in the war on terror] and a declaration of war. In order for President Bush to have obtained a declaration of war against Iraq, he would have had to present his case that Iraq had already committed overt acts of war against the United States. Like a prosecutor, he would have had to convince the “jury” (Congress) that Iraq was guilty – not of “possessing weapons of mass destruction” but of having already aggressed against the United States. Obviously, he would not have been able to do this. In fact, the absence of any overt acts of war by the nations in question is the reason that there were no declarations of war against Korea, Viet Nam, Bosnia, or any other nation that the U.S. government has waged war against since WWII.

Now I know why Ron Paul always mentions this and why it's so important.

BTW, I've been reading this guy's blog all evening and it's amazing.