War Powers

During a war, the president has special powers. You can imagine a time when the president was the commander of the military. Calling congress to session to approve certain actions would seem ridiculous, especially without private planes, telephones, video conferencing, paved roads or printing presses. (I know the press was invented in 1041 or 1436 depending on whether you're Chinese or German - let's move on). Anyway, some people will tell you that in the interest of national security these special powers are almost unlimited, but even these citizens would say during peace times, those powers should be regulated.

What is war? It's easy to show examples that are obviously war. In the revolutionary war, an invading force tried to take control and force us to do their bidding. In our civil war, part of the country seceded and there were two armies fighting for either independence or union. In the first world war, a bunch of countries separated into teams and kept killing each other until one side decided it was unbearable. During the Vietnam War, we tried to prop up a country that was incapable or unwilling to hold out against a specific threat. During the Cold War, the enemy was well defined even if it may have been somewhat contrived.

That we call the war on terror, or the war in Afghanistan, or the war in Iraq a war seems unconscionable. We might as well enact the war power for the war on poverty, war on drugs, or the war on Christmas. The threats to us are all specific to the occupying forces and there are no exit criteria and no specific targets anymore. There is no valid reason to suspend habeas corpus, to allow illegal (unregulated) wire-tapping, torture, massive deficit spending, or any suspension of law because we are systematically destroying civilization in some remote corner of the world. Before we start deciding what powers the president should have in a time of war, we should start a real war, or else these arguments are all hypothetical.

Maybe we should try China.