you are right that they were rhetorical questions. But Um, I think you are
wrong in your definition of a declaration of war, if only in that there was
a draft in Vietnam, and afaik war never was declared.

In my opinion when you send troops into a country against its wishes then
you are at war. Liberia does not qualify because (I believe?) the people
have requested our help in keeping order. I don't believe that war was
declared in Korea, but it's been quite a while since my US-World Relations
class. 

As I look over the list (Vietnam, Korea, Somalia, Iraq...) it occurs to me
that waiting a few days for Congress to vote might *avoid* major problems.
I mean, if we are going to take a strict interpretation of the
Constittution everywhere else (guns, speech) then why not here?

Nick McClure writes:

> OK, well I assume you are asking these questions rhetorically, but
> 
> The Constitution gives Congress the sole power of the purse, it gives 
> congress the ability to declare war, but it gives the President control 
> over the army. The Declaration of war is more than just the deployment of 
> troops.
> 
> It is the total full out war effort for the country, when congress declares 
> war they enable certain things like the raising of an army via a draft, 
> public food and materials rationing, the ability to quarter troops in the 
> houses of the people, an number of other things.
> 
> Was war declared in Korea? I don't know how that worked, that was a UN 
> action against communism, I don't know the details of the political 
> environment.
> 
> The other ones, was war declared, nope, but aside from Vietnam, they were 
> not in my mind wars, a war to implies a lot more.
> 
> The President is Commander in Chief of the armed forces, and therefore can 
> send the troops anywhere he wants anytime he wants. He does have to use 
> Congress to get funding.
> 
> Congress has passed laws allowing the President and in some cases other 
> government agencies to use the military to operate when needed. In this day 
> and age waiting a few extra days for Congress to declare war could cause 
> major problems.
> 
> What about when we send troops to Liberia, should we declare war on 
> Liberia, we have troops on the ground, are they at war, should we have a 
> formal declaration of war to send 2000 troops to keep the peace?
> 
> At 03:55 AM 7/7/2003 +0000, you wrote:
> >ok, I guess you can disregard the question I just sent you about the
> >Patriot Act  :)
> >
> >A couple of questions. Does the Constitution say that Congress will pass a
> >budget so that Congress is not called unpatrotic and against our boys, or
> >does the Constitution say that Congress will declare war?
> >
> >Second question, did Congress declare war on Grenada? Iraq I? Vietnam? (or
> >was that the Gulf of Tonkin that McNamara admitted lying to Congress
> >about?) Either way, did Congress declare war on North Korea? What about all
> >those actions in Central America over the fruit interests? Did Congress
> >declare war there?
> >
> >Dana
> 
> 
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