John Whitehead's Commentary
It's Time for Congress to Get a Moral Backbone
Speculation over a possible U.S. military strike against Iran has moved from questioning whether the U.S. will launch an attack to questioning when it will do so. Despite denials by the Bush Administration that a future offensive is planned, the present military build-up in the Persian Gulf of aircraft carriers, fighter jets, missiles and minesweepers and the stockpiling of oil reserves suggest differently.
There is no shortage of opinions on the prospect of war with Iran. Those in favor seem determined to extend our war efforts on another front. Those opposed are leery of embarking on another drawn-out military offensive while we continue to lose ground in Afghanistan and Iraq. And we, the people, are left feeling powerless as the Bush Administration's saber-rattling may be moving us inexorably closer to yet another war and yet another tragic loss of lives. This is the problem with allowing one branch of government to become more powerful than the others.
The genius of the American system of government is that its powers and authority are deliberately divided. Referred to as the separation of powers, this means that the president, the courts and Congress each individually serve as one-third of the American governing body. And there are important reasons why the separation of powers must be preserved, especially when it comes to the power to declare war.
James Wilson, one of our founding fathers strongly in favor of creating a strong presidency, recognized that by preventing the president from declaring wars, the Constitution guarantees that the government "will not hurry us into wars." He went on to explain, "It is calculated to guard against it. It will not be the power of a single man, or a single body of men, to involve us in such distresses."
The framers of our Constitution understood that there is a world of difference between the power to declare war and the power to conduct war. They also knew from experience the dangers inherent in vesting both powers in the same person. That's why they severed the power to initiate war, which rests with Congress, from the power to conduct it, which rests with the president.
However, although Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution makes clear that only Congress has the power to declare war, Congress has absolved itself of that greater responsibility. As Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.) has noted, "The process by which we've entered wars over the past 57 years, and the inconclusive results of each war since that time, are obviously related to Congress' abdication of its responsibility regarding war."
Since the 1973 passage of the War Powers Resolution, which limits the power of the president to wage war without Congress' approval, Congress has resorted to issuing "authorizations of force" rather than "declarations of war." By doing so, they are able to lessen the perception that the U.S. is committing itself to as serious an endeavor as war, shift the burden of engaging in hostilities to the executive branch and subsequently further erode our governmental system of checks and balances. The consequences of the government's utter failure to obey the dictates of our Constitution and the wisdom of its drafters have been devastating--both to the rule of law and the war efforts.
So what is to be done?
First, Congress needs to do its job by reining in the runaway executive branch and enforcing the separation of powers. The Founding Fathers were deeply devoted to securing a government committed to an equal distribution of power. Fresh in their minds was the tyrannical rule of the British king. They understood well that if power weren't shared and checked, a dictatorship would occur. Indeed, it is for this very reason that they created the three co-equal branches of government.
Second, Congress and the Bush Administration should stop playing semantics and games. If it looks like war and it feels like war and the deaths and casualties mount up as they do in war, then it is war. And no amount of word-play or authorizations of force can get around that.
Third, it's time for Congress to get a moral backbone. There is no such thing as a free pass on issues of such great magnitude as war. War is irreversibly consequential. Thus, unless there is an extreme emergency, the decision to enter into war should be made with cautious deliberation and only after a measured public debate among our elected representatives.
We are, at present, treading dangerous waters. And, at the very least, we owe it to those in uniform to guarantee that the ultimate sacrifice will only be asked of them under the most scrutinized circumstances.
Thomas Jefferson believed that by putting the power to declare war with Congress, it created an "effectual check to the dog of war by transferring the power of letting him loose." Let's put that power back where it belongs before the dog turns on its master and destroys the republic.
There is no shortage of opinions on the prospect of war with Iran. Those in favor seem determined to extend our war efforts on another front. Those opposed are leery of embarking on another drawn-out military offensive while we continue to lose ground in Afghanistan and Iraq. And we, the people, are left feeling powerless as the Bush Administration's saber-rattling may be moving us inexorably closer to yet another war and yet another tragic loss of lives. This is the problem with allowing one branch of government to become more powerful than the others.
The genius of the American system of government is that its powers and authority are deliberately divided. Referred to as the separation of powers, this means that the president, the courts and Congress each individually serve as one-third of the American governing body. And there are important reasons why the separation of powers must be preserved, especially when it comes to the power to declare war.
James Wilson, one of our founding fathers strongly in favor of creating a strong presidency, recognized that by preventing the president from declaring wars, the Constitution guarantees that the government "will not hurry us into wars." He went on to explain, "It is calculated to guard against it. It will not be the power of a single man, or a single body of men, to involve us in such distresses."
The framers of our Constitution understood that there is a world of difference between the power to declare war and the power to conduct war. They also knew from experience the dangers inherent in vesting both powers in the same person. That's why they severed the power to initiate war, which rests with Congress, from the power to conduct it, which rests with the president.
However, although Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution makes clear that only Congress has the power to declare war, Congress has absolved itself of that greater responsibility. As Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.) has noted, "The process by which we've entered wars over the past 57 years, and the inconclusive results of each war since that time, are obviously related to Congress' abdication of its responsibility regarding war."
Since the 1973 passage of the War Powers Resolution, which limits the power of the president to wage war without Congress' approval, Congress has resorted to issuing "authorizations of force" rather than "declarations of war." By doing so, they are able to lessen the perception that the U.S. is committing itself to as serious an endeavor as war, shift the burden of engaging in hostilities to the executive branch and subsequently further erode our governmental system of checks and balances. The consequences of the government's utter failure to obey the dictates of our Constitution and the wisdom of its drafters have been devastating--both to the rule of law and the war efforts.
So what is to be done?
First, Congress needs to do its job by reining in the runaway executive branch and enforcing the separation of powers. The Founding Fathers were deeply devoted to securing a government committed to an equal distribution of power. Fresh in their minds was the tyrannical rule of the British king. They understood well that if power weren't shared and checked, a dictatorship would occur. Indeed, it is for this very reason that they created the three co-equal branches of government.
Second, Congress and the Bush Administration should stop playing semantics and games. If it looks like war and it feels like war and the deaths and casualties mount up as they do in war, then it is war. And no amount of word-play or authorizations of force can get around that.
Third, it's time for Congress to get a moral backbone. There is no such thing as a free pass on issues of such great magnitude as war. War is irreversibly consequential. Thus, unless there is an extreme emergency, the decision to enter into war should be made with cautious deliberation and only after a measured public debate among our elected representatives.
We are, at present, treading dangerous waters. And, at the very least, we owe it to those in uniform to guarantee that the ultimate sacrifice will only be asked of them under the most scrutinized circumstances.
Thomas Jefferson believed that by putting the power to declare war with Congress, it created an "effectual check to the dog of war by transferring the power of letting him loose." Let's put that power back where it belongs before the dog turns on its master and destroys the republic.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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