I agree Kevin. It's a very good point alright, even though it's beside the point. Thomas Jefferson did indeed send ships and troops to North Africa to stem the piracy which was prevalent at the time in that part of the world and all without a congressional declaration of war , AND it had a good outcome for the U.S. to boot. Always a good thing.
BUT, the question was about adhering to that document's ORIGINAL intent and to the letter of it by those who's expressed viewpoint(such as Larry states...and I hope I'm paraphrasing this correctly..."go back to the original document as much as we can").
Article One, Section 8 specifically states that Congress' "enumerated powers" include:
"To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years."
And Larry, you did answer my question above when you said:
"I don't remember saying I was too crazy about that.", and thus I thank you for that, but must add that nothing in the world, even in our own continuously changing(for good OR bad) U.S.Constutution should ever be said to be inviolate to such a degree, or indeed "pined for the good old days" that it cannot be updated, changed or modernized.
That was my main point here, and I used the War Powers Act in order to press it. And yes, when I said earlier I was "A fellow strict constitutionist", of course I'm not. That was a ploy to get you to explain what I viewed as your somewhat severe stance in this matter. However I do believe that there are some very basic ideas in this document that should be followed as much as humanly possible, which this one especially I view as very important when it comes to commiting this republic to war.
(BTW Larry...thank you for your well metered response above)
Last edited by Dwight; 02/10/2008 5:14 AM.
