The Liberty Papers

First it was Vice-President Cheney saying that the United States would have invaded Iraq in 2003 even if Congress had said no, know President Bush has said that he will go forward with the so-called surge plan even if Congress votes against the plan:

Faced with substantial opposition both in Congress and among the American public to their Iraq plans, President Bush and Vice President Cheney vowed yesterday to forge ahead with the deployment of more than 21,000 additional troops.

In an interview broadcast last night on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Bush said he has the authority as commander in chief to move ahead with the deployment, regardless of what the Democratic-controlled Congress does in opposition.

“In this situation, I do, yeah,” Bush said. “I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I’ve made my decision. And we’re going forward.”

National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said yesterday that the money is already in place to begin moving additional troops to Iraq.

“We have authority in the — we have money in the ’07 budget, which has been appropriated by the Congress, to move these troops to Iraq, and the president will be doing that,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Let’s take a look at what the Constitution has to say about this. For example, Article II, Section 8 states that Congress has the power:

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;

The President, meanwhile,

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;

In other words, Congress authorizes war and funds it. The President carries it out. Or at least that’s the way it was supposed to be.

Since the end of World War II, the United States has been involved in sustained military action in Korea, Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Not one of those occasions involved a formal declaration of war. Instead, the President has assumed the powers to send American military forces into hostile, even war-like, action first, and ask Congress for permission later.

Now, Bush is essentially saying that he doesn’t really need to ask Congress for permission. And I don’t think anyone is going to stop him.

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Dick Cheney Ignores The Constitution