December 8, 2011 was the seventieth anniversary of the last declaration of war issued by Congress and signed by the President. The historic picture of Roosevelt signing Congress’s declaration was my childhood image of the U.S. resolutely united in a war against evil.

             On the anniversary I read a website by news junkie Maureen Holland identifying eighty “US Military Interventions and Wars Since 1941.” I was unable to find a consistent process, let alone rationale. Commander-In-Chief Obama deployed forces for a regime change in Libya with no clear opposition party. Monday on C-Span presidential candidates Huntsman and Gingrich said Iran is our most important threat because of its nuclear capabilities and we must commit to a regime change. We’ve done regime changes to install Iran’s Shah, Iraq’s Hussein, Afghanistan’s Karzai and Panama’s Noriega.

            How have we decided to go to war since WWII? I’m not focusing on what is a just war, just worrying about how we decide.  

Engaging military forces are authorized by our Constitution, our UN Treaty and the War Powers Act.

Our Constitution authorizes Congress to declare war, but doesn’t explain how. Congress has enumerated authority, “to raise and support armies and provide and maintain a navy.” Our constitution also states, “The president shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States … when called into the actual service of the United States.”

Our Constitution authorizes both branches, independently -- at least according leaders in each branch.

After WWII Congress authorized two wars in Lebanon, Vietnam (after troops had been there for four years), both recent Iraq wars and Afghanistan.

In 1945 the Senate ratified the United Nations Charter empowering the UN Security Council to establish peacekeeping operations, international sanctions and military action through UNSC resolutions. Prior to Congressional approval, our Commanders-In-Chief have committed forces under UNSC resolutions in Korea, Bosnia, a Liberian war, Haiti, and most recently Libya, although Congress eventually funded them.

Congress passed The War Powers Act over President Nixon’s veto in 1973 to limit presidential war powers after the Vietnam War. The WPA’s purpose is “insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances.”

‘Imminent hositilities’is a euphemism for our soldiers likely dying in combat. Contrast that wording with “Operation Killer,” the first offensive against the Chinese in Korea by General Matthew Ridgway, who was assigned command to revive the demoralized Eighth Army and UN Forces. Warned by his PR people the term was too bloodthirsty, he ignored them and later wrote, “I am by nature opposed to any effort to ‘sell’ war to people as only mildly unpleasant business that requires little in the way of blood.” If we’re going to decide on war, let’s not sell it.

The WPA requires a president who has already deployed significant troops of to inform Congress within 48 hours and restricts engagement to 60 days plus 30 days for a withdrawal, unless Congress authorizes a longer period or declares war. The example referenced was Kennedy’s increase of US Vietnam military advisers from 700 to 16,000.

A report on the WPA after thirty years indicates Congressional leaders invoked the act after Vietnam evacuations, the Iranian rescue, El Salvador military advising, Honduran military exercises, Nicaragua military training, Lebanon multi-national forces, Grenada riot control, Libyan bombing runs in 1986, Panama regime change, Haiti regime change and armed conflict, Kosovo, and most recently Libya.

The report concluded, “Every President since the enactment of the WPA has taken the position that it is an unconstitutional infringement on the President’s authority as Commander-In-Chief.” Obama ignored the reporting requirement in Libya because he concluded military involvement wasn’t significant. Members in Congressional sessions that haven’t had a majority to enforce the WPA have filed lawsuits to enforce it, but courts have insisted Congress must enforce it first.

The War Powers Act has added new reports and discussions without resolving final authority.

But we’ve been involved in numerous military interventions not covered by these authorizations. One example: from 1976-1992 the CIA assisted South African armed rebels from Angola while Nelson Mandela was overthrowing his government with non-violence.

Eisenhower declined one intervention on the advice of Ridgway who had become Army Chief of Staff. Eisenhower was under pressure to send troops to rescue French forces trapped by Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu in French Indochina. Ridgway’s powerful memo predicting the deaths and destruction of American forces convinced Eisenhower to avoid a wasteful intervention.  

I worry commanding war solutions gives the false appearance of quick solutions and endangers too many lives, particularly as we face a future with increasing threats of nuclear powers in Iran and Pakistan. And I don’t see a consistent process, or a deep commitment, to reach a “collective judgment of both Congress and the President” to use armed forces with a realistic understanding of the costs.

We should strengthen collective judgments before we approve war, and perhaps avoid it more often.