Wednesday, August 29, 2012

making war

     You may read in news articles or on blogs about "undeclared war", such as the Vietnam War or the Korean War. People get excited about this for a reason. The President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, but only Congress can declare war. This is part of the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8.  Since there are hundreds of Congressmen, all locally elected, and only one president, most people feel that Congress has something more like the mandate of the public when it decides to declare war. Presidents have tried to get around this provision by "lending" troops, or by sending "advisors" to other countries, when they really want to participate in a war.Congress may retaliate by refusing to vote for extra funds ( money ) to be spent on something that looks like a war, but which hasn't been "declared" a war by Congress.
     Since we have a large standing ( peacetime ) army,  additional funds may not be needed to fight a  small-to-medium sized war. Additional soldiers may not be needed, so no one will be drafted to fight in the "undeclared" war. There are few protests, since everyone who is in the army joined the army, as a volunteer. A few columnists and bloggers object that this undermines the Constitution, and they're right. Most of the rest of us are used to the situation now, since it has been repeated so many times in the past 50 years.
    

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