Declaration of War
Reader comment on item: Democrats Unlearn 9/11

Submitted by (Mrs.) Beverly Ryan (United States), Jan 9, 2004 at 00:19

Dear Mr. Pipes, Would you kindly do me a favor and change the wording? Under the Constitution, it is Congress' job to declare war, not the president. Right after the Attack on America, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, then the next day the Senate passed it and then, I think, the next day President Bush signed it.

To this day the Democrats and other assorted anti-war demonstrators keep screaming that Bush had no right to go to war and on and on and on and on. Congress declared war. I e-mailed quite a few people when it first happened and, as a result of what has been going on, I have been reading the Constitution a lot. I mean the body of the Constitution itself because that is where the authority to declare war comes from. Once President Bush got the declaration of war from Congress, he has been conducting it. The Democrats have been screaming and yelling ever since. The President did not have to get a declaration of war against Iraq. He didn't even have to go to the UN. I thought he was being a gentleman trying to make everybody happy.

Several days ago I found out about the Democratic Socialists web site and I went there and took a look. It appears to me that all the Democrats are spouting the "party line" about Iraq. Did you look at it? That tells me why the National Council of Churches is against the war in Iraq. I have e-mailed them a few times, too. In something at their web site dated December 10 they said they don't like have Scripture quoted to them because it's not the right Scripture. There is a new site called the Clergy Leadership Network that is a non-profit and it is to get the Christians to cling to the Democrats again and love taxes going up and don't say anything about things like abortion and homosexuality. I checked them out last night. Their board consists of a couple rabbis, a couple Muslims, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and several various reverends from around the country, quite a few of whom are or were affiliated with the National Council of Churches. Worldnetdaily had quite an interesting article within the past few days about all kinds of Muslim activity in the United States. Whew. And down here in Sunny South Florida there is a big push to free Jose Padilla. I love Broward County and lived there for several years, but they have really gone off the deep end. They were the 100th community to pass an ordinance against the Patriot Act and won't cooperate with the government in the prosecution of it (isn't that - like treason?); they are allowing homosexuality in their schools in the name of "diversity"; they have a Leadership Broward group into which one or two Muslims are applying; for years they have been proud of the fact that they are the most Democratic county in the state.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Constitutionally, you are right, but (so far as I can tell) no one has formally declared war on anyone since 1945. Declaring war, then, has become a rhetorical step, and that is what President Bush did on Sept. 11, 2001, as I indicated.

DP