I Say It's War and I Say the Hell With It

Joe at AMERICAblog asks a good question: "How are we at war without a declaration of war?"

I'm not being facetious. This is legally quite serious. How can the president claim extreme and exceptional war-time powers when Congress never declared war, an ability congress most certainly has and did not exercise?

From AP:

The White House argues the Constitution gives the president wartime powers to eavesdrop that he wouldn't have during times of peace.

I would go so far as to say that if Congress expressly did not exercise its power to declare war, and it clearly did not, then Congress implicitly stated, by it inaction, that it did not wish to grant the president any of these added powers.

To put it another way, if Bush keeps talking about how September 11 changed everything, then why is our nation at a lesser war footing than it was during World War II?

Especially since the cheerleaders for this war are always telling us that it's as crucial to the survival of Western civilization as was World War II.

Technorati tags: declaration of war, September 11, the Constitution, Congress