by John C. Pinheiro
Last week Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York warned that "if we don't want to become an empire instead of a republic," Congress must reassert its control of the war power under Article II, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves to Congress the sole right to declare war.
The occasion was the debate over the American military intervention in Libya's civil war. The White House had told Congress that American military actions in Libya "are distinct from the kind of 'hostilities' contemplated by" the War Powers Act of 1973. Because President Barack Obama does not consider the bombing of Libya to be "hostilities," he sees no need for Congressional authorization under the War Powers Act, let alone under the Constitution. Congressman Nadler disagrees. "The president is becoming an absolute monarch," he said.
As a Democrat, Nadler cannot be accused of leveling a partisan attack on President Obama. Indeed, Mr. Nadler's words echo the title of the 1999 book, A Republic, Not an Empire, by the Republican Patrick Buchanan.
"We have been sliding," Nadler asserted, "for seventy years to a situation where Congress has nothing to do with the decision about whether to go to war or not."
