Raise your hand if this phrase chills you to the bone: White House lawyers have concluded that President Bush faces no legal requirement to get Congressional approval to launch an attack on Iraq.

I vaguely recall a phrase in seventh grade social studies… something about “checks and balances”. Maybe it was a hallucination from the chalk dust.

They bounce the checks and cover up the boob of the lady who holds the balance. What do you expect?

I'll raise my hand, but I'm NOT going to try to top that comment.

Part of the ongoing (since Nam) dance over the role of Congress to wage war, vs. the rele of the President as Commander-in-Chief.

The argument is that the authorization for action against Iraq back in '91 still holds true, since that conflict never officially "ended."

If I could, I would have extra hands surgically added just so that I could have more hands to raise.

Can't we evict the whole olt of them and start over?

Other countries do... something about 'no confidence'

I sure as h*ll got no confidence in any of them...

Since Nam? Heck I was reading a dry piece yesterday about how this sort of thing has been debated since the first the Barbary Pirates events around 1800.

Checks and balances are one thing, but the abilty to wage war isn't included in that because, well the Supreme Court doesn't get any say on the War ability.

T.R. thumbed his nose at Congress with the Great White Fleet, he sent that out without Congress approval, when the fleet ran out of fuel in the South Atlantic he said, "Do we want our ships back? Better fund my Navy tour."

It's not just Bush that's done this. Clinton got involved in that war with Serbia in '99 without Congress's approval, fired missiles at Afghanistan. Carter ordered an invasion of Iran (Desert One), Ford played golf, Nixon bombed Cambodia, Ike invaded Lebannon, FDR and Hoover invaded Central America over and over.

It's an on going cycle.

Oh and yea, technically by the terms of cease fire in '91 if Iraq doesn't abide by all the terms the United Nations placed on him, the state of hostilites remain in effect.

So technically by not giving up all the WMD, Iraq places it's self in the crosshairs.

The US and UK used this point during Desert Fox in '98 to bomb the heck out of Iraq.

France used to help bomb the crap out of them, but the units transitioned back to France for upgrade to Rafales and that took 5 years longer than they thought and the budget go cut for redeployment back to the Gulf.