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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!

But the president, in any case, conspicuously declined to request a
declaration of war from Congress. Some observers have claimed that since only
a scant handful of Muslim states recognized the Taliban junta, it was
illegitimate - and thus not a proper target of a declaration of war. But
President Bush treated the Taliban as the legitimate governing authority when
he demanded its cooperation in arresting and extraditing terrorists. If the
Taliban was a suitable subject for a presidential ultimatum, it was just as
suitable a target for a congressional declaration of war.

Under the "law of nations" as understood by the Founding Fathers,
declarations of war are intended to put both governments and their subjects
on notice of impending hostilities. Reflecting the recognized international
conventions at the time of the American founding, Emmerich de Vattel pointed
out in his definitive work The Law of Nations that issuing a declaration of
war is a duty owed "to humanity, and especially to the lives and peace of the
subjects" of the hostile government. By issuing such a declaration, the
aggrieved nation formally notifies "that unjust nation, or its chief, that we
are at length going to have recourse to the last remedy, for the purpose of
bringing him to reason."

Vattel also emphasized that where "custom has introduced certain formalities
in the business" of declaring war, those formalities must be dutifully
observed, unless they have been "set … aside by a public renunciation." In
the case of the United States of America, the "formalities" in question are
specifically defined not by custom, but by the Constitution - which has not
been amended to relieve the president of his duty to seek a formal
declaration from Congress.

Congressional Abdication

Prior to the president's September 20, 2001 address, Congress passed a joint
resolution authorizing the president "to use all necessary and appropriate
force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned,
authorized, or aided the terrorist attacks on September 11." (Emphasis
added.) As commentator Sheldon Richman observes, that resolution was not a
declaration of war, but "a grant of Caesarian power." When asked if the
president would have to obtain congressional authorization to attack nations
other than Afghanistan, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) replied:
"No, he certainly wouldn't have to clear it with us. He's an independent
branch of government." Daschle's reply misrepresents the Constitution's
division of war powers between the executive and legislative branches. In our
constitutional system, the president does not have the privilege of
committing our nation to war; only Congress has the power to make that
decision.

The description of the president as "commander in chief" of our military
describes a function, not an office. In peacetime, this presidential role
insures civilian control of our military. But even in wartime, the president
exercises his role under a mandate from Congress, and subject to its
budgetary and regulatory restraints.

In carrying out the functions of commander in chief, wrote Alexander Hamilton
in The Federalist, No. 69, the president's authority "would be nominally the
same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior
to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction
of the military and naval forces … while that of the British king extends to
the raising and regulating of fleets and armies, all which, by the
Constitution … appertain to the legislature."

In a June 1793 essay written as the infant American republic confronted the
prospect of a war with Britain, Hamilton re-emphasized the primacy of
Congress' role in committing our nation to war: "It is the province and duty
of the Executive to preserve to the Nation the blessings of peace. The
Legislature alone can interrupt those blessings, by placing the Nation in a
state of War."

Notably, Hamilton was an outspoken proponent of "energy in the executive."
But like the other Framers of the Constitution, he insisted that the
president should devote his energies to carrying out the constitutionally
sound measures passed by Congress - including declarations of war.

War Without End?

In a 1798 letter to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison pointed out: "The
Constitution supposes, what the history of all governments demonstrates, that
the executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone
to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in
the legislature." Allowing the executive to decide unilaterally "the question
of war" would be tantamount to installing a monarchy - and potentially set
the stage for "continual warfare," a condition in which liberty cannot long
survive.

The Bush administration has eagerly acted upon Congress' open-ended grant of
power. In early January, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld warned that 15
countries are potential targets of U.S. military strikes. Rumsfeld has also
advised that the "war on terror" might last for more than a single lifetime,
and Bush administration strategists have reportedly been reviewing
contingency plans for a conflict lasting 50 years or more.

By abdicating its constitutional war powers, Congress violated a key tenet of
the Just War doctrine. President Bush committed an even more grievous
violation by ignoring Congress and deferring to the supposed authority of the
UN Security Council to authorize his decision to take our nation to war.

"We are supported by the collective will of the world.... [T]he world has
come together to fight a new and different war," insisted the president in
the White House report The Global War on Terrorism: The First 100 Days. In a
similar vein, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has stated with satisfaction
that by presiding over the global "war on terrorism," the world body is
providing "collective global defense against a global enemy." By doing so,
the UN is rapidly gaining both the power and the pretense of legitimacy it
needs to become the seat of a socialist World State.

In addition, our nation's unwise involvement in a UN-directed
"anti-terrorism" coalition has made us allies with some of the world's most
notorious terrorist states. Syria, a chief exporter of terrorism, presently
sits on the UN Security Council, where it helps preside over the "war on
terrorism."

Until the president described it as part of the "axis of evil," Iran was also
a member of the UN-directed coalition. Iran is a patron of Osama bin Laden,
and a surrogate of Russia - itself a permanent member of the UN Security
Council. Communist China, another permanent Security Council member,
generously supplied military hardware and assistance to Afghanistan's Taliban
junta. And the Northern Alliance, brought to power with the backing of the
UN-organized coalition, is a hideous collection of terrorists, drug
traffickers, and degenerates that differs from the Taliban only in matters of
nuance. How can a "war on terrorism" in which terrorists are our
comrades-in-arms be considered just?

The primary stated objective of the war on Afghanistan was to get Osama bin
Laden. Yet when bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Mullah Omar, eluded
capture, the coalition declared victory because the Northern Alliance had
supplanted the Taliban. In addition, the president has warned that tens of
thousands of bin Laden's terrorists have fled Afghanistan and pose a
continuing threat to our nation. Given all of this, it would appear that the
war on Afghanistan fails the test of proportionality.

The costs of perpetual war, as measured in lives, liberties, wealth, and
national independence, also appear to violate the Just War principle of
proportionality. The same principle requires exploring alternatives to
warfare. The only realistic alternative to an interminable "war on terrorism"
is to repudiate our present interventionist foreign policy and restore the
Founding Fathers' policy of enlightened neutrality.

That policy would dictate non-intervention in the affairs of other nations
coupled with maintaining a military geared exclusively toward national
defense. It would require that Congress re-claim its constitutional role as
the sole body with the power to commit our nation to war. And, most
importantly, it would demand that our nation liberate itself from the United
Nations - which, far from being the world's "last, best hope for peace," is
becoming an engine for perpetual war.




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