The media keeps calling the fighting in Iraq a ‘war’ but as the congress has not actually declared ‘war’ on Iraq it’s not officially a war. In fact we have not fought a real war since WWII. Now it’s one thing to go into a country under UN mandate—as in Korea to fight but it is another to go into a foreign country without that mandate and without the congress, the elected representatives of the people, declaring war. I know that it has been stated that this ‘war’ is not with the people of Iraq but with the government, but still, Bush should not have had the power to send our troops in without UN support unless the congress had first declared war. I think the war powers act—which allows the President to get congress approval after the fact should be repealed and the power to send us to war should be given back the congress so that one person cannot make the decision. Lets get back to the way the Founding Fathers wrote it in the Constitution. I know the who is it really war? is academic since war is an adjective here, but to refer to this as ‘The Second Gulf War’ bestows a feeling of officialism on the military action, officialism that is not truly there.
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