Congress officially approved extended miltary engagement, short of Declaring War.
[i]For the United States, Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution says "Congress shall have power to ... declare War;" however, that passage provides no specific format for what form legislation text must have to be considered a "Declaration of War" nor does the Constitution itself use this term. Many have postulated "Declaration(s) of War" must contain that phrase as or within the title. Many oppose that reasoning."
" Despite the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war, in practice, formal Declarations of War have occurred only upon prior request by the President. And contrary to the popular opinion that the framers of the Constitution intended that the President cannot engage in war without an act of Congress, in fact the framers chose the final wording with the intent of "leaving to the Executive the power to repel sudden attacks" without the explicit approval of Congress.[1] However, debate continues as to the legal extent of the President's authority in this regard. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (Pub.L. 93-148) limits the power of the President to wage war without the approval of the Congress. The United States of America has formally declared war against foreign nations five separate times."[/i]
Here's how the US government sidestepped the constitutional issues though.
"Extremely heated debate developed in the United States beginning on or around September 11, 2001. Opponents of the uses of military force since began to argue, chiefly, that the Iraq War was unconstitutional, because it lacked a clear declaration of war, and was waged over the objection of a significantly sized demographic in the United States.
Instead of formal war declarations, the United States Congress has begun issuing authorizations of force. Such authorizations have included the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that greatly increased American participation in the Vietnam War, and the recent "Authorization of the Use of Military Force" (AUMF) resolution that started the War in Iraq. Some question the legality of these authorizations of force. Many who support declarations of war argue that they keep administrations honest by forcing them to lay out their case to the American people while, at the same time, honoring the constitutional role of the United States Congress."
AUMF: When resolutions were being set against the weapons inspectors being tossed out of Iraq repeatedly and Saddam was being uncooprative, Bush said that he would use force (AUMF) to cokmplete the search if inspections were not allowed to continue.
Heres' what he said exactly: [i]" With this resolution, Congress has now authorized the use of force. I have not ordered the use of force. I hope the use of force will not become necessary. Yet, confronting the threat posed by Iraq is necessary, by whatever means that requires. [b]Either the Iraqi regime will give up its weapons of mass destruction, or, for the sake of peace, the United States will lead a global coalition to disarm that regime.[/b] If any doubt our nation's resolve, our determination, they would be unwise to test it. "[/i]
(a global coalition? Why did everyone else back out and request more proof of these so called WMD before following into Iraq))
In other words, if Iraq doesn't cooperate with inspections, Congress has approved for me to use the AUMF ammendment to the Constituion in order to "disarm that regime".[/i]
Here's where the BIG LIE began though.
Weapons inspectors were NOT stopped form progressing after that time. They WERE inspecting and turning up NOTHING, except a few old unusable and unused weapons.
Bush REMOVED inspectors and sent troops in to invade Iraq anyway.
So in reality it was BUSH who decided to invade Iraq, as Congress has permitted him to do, and it was BUSH who lied about imminent threats and removed inspectors to make room for an invasion, which wasn't supposed to occur IF inspectors were allowed to complete their tasks.
Saddam said he HAD destroyed weapons, as requested, Bush didn't believe him.
Saddam HAD let inspectors undergo their tasks and they were repoortedly only 6 weeks from completion, but theUS would have had no basis for an invasion if they came up empty handed. They were pulled out and troops sent in.
It is unconstutitional, it is an outright LIE by the US government and it has cost thousands of lives, both US and Iraqi as well as trillions of dollars.
Yet it is justified in so many little minds.
That is a war of crime.
