Post Scripts: Bush’s war

I well remember how the United States entered World War II after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. President Franklin Roosevelt did not react like President Bush. Before sending U.S. forces into action, he went before a joint session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Japan. He received immediate approval and several days later Congress declared war against Germany as well.

There is a difference between Roosevelt and Bush. The Constitution says it is up to the executive branch to enforce our laws, but only after Congress has approved them. Likewise, it is up to the commander-in-chief to conduct war, but only after Congress has declared it. However, I must point out in this age of nuclear attack there has not been a single declaration of war since December, 1941.

President Harry Truman was the first. He did not ask Congress to declare war over Korea, arguing that the Senate’s ratification of the U.N. Charter gave him authority to join the UN "police action." Then came Johnson and Nixon who used the vague Gulf of Tonkin resolution as the excuse for the Vietnam war. The first President Bush, whom I suspect is putting words in his son’s mouth, threatened to fight the Gulf War without any authorization; avoiding a crisis with Congress when that body agreed to "Operation Desert Storm."

Each time, the president got away with more authority than the time before. Now President Bush, responsible for one of the oddest wars this nation ever sponsored in Afghanistan, where the bad guys got away and that nation today is in danger of reverting back to barbarianism.

Here in Texas, along the highways are signs that read: "Don’t mess with Texas." I fear the president feels that arrogant cowboy "shoot from the hip" attitude that sign represents, will also work in Washington, D.C. We have a Constitution that has served this nation well since 1789. President Bush believes he can poke a hole in it by not asking Congress for a Declaration of War against Iraq, or even authorization to conduct war. He demands the same power the Constitution reserves for Congress.

The first responsibility any president has is decisions be made after intensive study and the excuse for war explained in full detail to the American people. I do not know whether war with Iraq is necessary or not. The public has never been given sufficient data on Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs to make an intelligent decision. Without this information the public cannot balance the danger of doing nothing against the danger of attacking Iraq and having half of the Arab world against us.

Regardless of whether this president has his head screwed on right or not, I believe he is trying to correct the error his father made in not following through when U.S. forces had Saddam on the run in the first Gulf War in 1990-91. Congress must hold him to his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. In our effort to replace a savage dictatorship in Iraq, we must be careful not to replace democracy with a Washington dictatorship.