Two of my three congresswomen voted correctly to deny President Bush the authority to start a war on his own volition. The third, Senator Feinstein, voted to abdicate her Constitutional duty, and I have tried several times to get her office to offer a justification for her vote.
According to Article I of the United States Constitution, only the Congress is permitted to declare war. The reason seems obvious, which is to insure that the subject is debated in public before a decision is made, and that the authority for such action is not held solely by the Commander in Chief.
"Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power...
...To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water..."
In 2003 the United States invaded a sovereign nation that had neither threatened nor attacked us or any of our allies. This is by any definition an act of war, and according to the Constitution only the Congress has the authority to make that military commitment. There is no Constitutional provision for Congress voting to allow the president to declare war, which is of course what they did.
If you will note the second part of the line extracted from Article I, it says that Congress shall make the rules regarding captures on land and sea. That means that the regulation of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay falls to Congress, which seems to have abdicated its responsibility in both the declaration of war and the regulation of military prisons, as well as the secret CIA prisons in other countries.
I have called and faxed Senator Feinstein's office asking why these apparent violations of the Constitution have not even been mentioned in public, much less debated. Of course my faxes just disappear into the electronic ether, and the staff member who takes my calls does not comment except to say that s/he will "pass my thoughts along to the Senator." I have no evidence that my comments have ever reached Senator Feinstein, who has not responded.
I urge Kossacks to contact their congresscritters and ask them the same questions I have asked Senator Feinstein. If someone actually extracts an answer, please post it on dKos. This seems to me to be a Constitutional crisis, and no one is paying any attention.
