So at lunch we got talking about Bush and the UK and more.
The question was brought up as to what constitutes a war. Was the Gulf “War” ever declared or is it considered by semantics solely a conflict? How do the powers differ for the president between a conflict and a war?
No, the Gulf War was not “declared”. Congress has not voted any formal declarations of war since 1941. The Supreme Court has been reluctant to constrain the president’s authority over the armed forces in any way, so the impact of a declaration of war on the president’s powers is virtually nil.
On that basis, since Congress never declared the Civil War, that was not a war either. Abe declared the war, along with suspending habeus corpus, two items the Const. grants to the Congress only. When the Chief Justice said he exceeded his authority, Abe was inclined to arrest him. Now, that’s a strong president.
The Civil War was certainly a “war” as was Vietnam and the Gulf. The common belief that “wars” only occur when you have a declaration from Congress is a myth. If you’ve got soldiers running about blowing stuff up and killing an enemy, it’s a war.
The War Powers Act, which as far as I know has not been tested by the Supreme Court, limits the President’s powers outside of a declaration of war or resolution from Congress in support of a specific military action. Such resolutions were obtained during the Gulf and Afghanistan campaigns.
Well, from the south’s point of view, The Civil War was definately a ‘war’. They viewed it the same as The American Revolution. They had declared themselves a new sovereign nation from a bullying mother-country and were now defending themselves from an invading army. That’s why, to this day, The Civil War is more commonly refered to as The War Between the States down south.
For the north, it was technically not a ‘war’. They were not invading, they were putting down a massive insurrection.
And, of course, the winners write the history books.