Kevin Underhill digresses from his usual Lowering the Bar reportage here − although, of course, he can’t relinquish his social-satirical eye (it’s a genetic gift, perceiving life as social satire, sort of like having good skin) − to take on the actual U.S. law regarding declarations of war, and what our current elected Congresspeople have said in support. (That’s my sarcasm: Underhill directly quotes several congresspeople as wimping out, directly contradicting their own exclusive responsibility for both declaring war and financing it. You’d think that legislators would know the law they’re governing, wouldn’t you?)
After highlighting the applicable quotes from our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and a couple of powerful congresspeople, Underhill writes this:
Just FYI, I’m not really opposed to bombing ISIS, I realize no Congress has ever turned down a president who has asked for a declaration of war anyway, and I agree that a formal declaration of war is not necessarily required for the president to use force in every situation. But here we have leaders—from both parties—of the only branch to which the Constitution actually gives the power to declare war suggesting that the Executive should not ask the Legislature for war authority because it might not vote to grant everything he asks.
You can think about that for a while, or you can just bang your head on your desk. Same result.
You’ll want to read the entire piece, especially the beginning quotes, which may ring a couple of bells. “Oh yeah, our Constitution says something about that, doesn’t it?” Congress: Please Don’t Ask Us to Declare War; We Might Say No – Lowering the Bar.
UPDATE 9/10/2014 at 4:31 p.m. And how convenient DailyKos published this today: GOP congressman explains why his colleagues don’t want to vote on military strikes against ISIS.