Undeclared Wars

The argument presented in the "Illegal War" post [by David C.] in Backtalk [October 5] is not entirely correct.

The president, under the constitutional powers of commander-in-chief, is allowed to make war for 90 days without the tacit authorization of congress in the form of a declaration of war. President Bush has three months from the time that the first bombs fall until war is declared or he ceases all military action. If military action occurs, this would not be the first time that American service men died fighting an undeclared war.

George Washington fought an undeclared naval war against the French during the 1790's, U.S. marines defeated the pirates of Tripoli without a declaration of war, nor was war declared as Marines died fighting Chinese during the Boxer Rebellion. Several hundred Army soldiers died fighting the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil war of the 1920s. Marines died in the Banana wars of the 1930s. The Korean War is officially listed as a "police action." War was never declared for the fighting in Vietnam, nor was it when President Johnson invaded and conquered Ecuador. President Carter enacted a failed military solution for the Iran hostage crisis. President Reagan invaded Grenada. President Bush did not ask for nor receive declarations of war for his invasions of Panama and Iraq. President Clinton bombed Iraq numerous times without the approval of congress.

In fact, if you read any book on US history from 1940 to the present and see how many times soldiers fought and died, you will see that Congress only declared war once for all of these military actions and that was Dec. 8th 1941.

~ Gregory D. Frattini

The "Backtalk" editor replies:

I believe that the 90 day rule is one of a number of restrictions (if that's the right word) on the president imposed by the War Powers Act – and is not a "Constitutional power," since it's not a power granted by the Constitution. The War Powers Act has been rejected by every president since its passage in the 1970s and was probably finally killed by Clinton's violation of the 90 day rule during the bombing of Yugoslavia.

When enumerating the powers of the branches of government, the Constitution simply states that "Congress shall declare war." This mandate appears to contain two parts: (1) that the United States Government shall not commit acts of war without declaring war, and (2) that Congress shall be the branch of government that declares war.

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Star Attraction

I just got done reading Justin's "American Imperium," and reading this article, written prior to 9/11, I just thought I had to personally give my thanks to Justin for his excellent work. I have been a reader of Antiwar.com (thanks to Justin, who is the star attraction) for a year now. It is my favorite news portal now, beating commondreams.org.

As an Arabian myself who lived and studied in West Texas for 6.5 years, I want Justin and the rest of the crew to know that not only do I respect their excellent work and fairness, but I respect their American patriotism, which is true and honest and not ... suffused with the poisonous irrationality evident in a lot of Americans these dark days.

I want you to know that I want this site to stay up. And I will be supplying you with much more than the mere 50 bucks you ask for.

~ Khalid F.

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Done Things And Seen Things

I would first like to tell you just a little about myself, so that you might see where I am coming from. I am in the Army. More importantly I am in the Infantry. I have been for 5 years, and I have done things and seen things that most would say would best be forgotten. However I digress from the real meat of this letter. ...

I close in just restating my position. War is not bad for us. It helps the economy, it allows us to resolve issues when there is no other way to do so, and it allows us to strike out at those who have struck us. This recent attack is a gushing wound, that is only now really being bandaged, and when my time comes to go and fight, I will do so wholeheartedly, leaving my wife behind, and I will kill those that need it to avenge the deaths of those that bore the brunt of the attack. The WTC's blood is on our enemies hands, and we are going over to find and destroy the animals who decided that they had had enough of us.

~ Blissitte, Cory J., US Army

The "Backtalk" editor replies:

[We've deleted most of your long letter because it raises points that we've answered over and over again. Yes, sometimes war is necessary, and, yes, the people who knowingly aided the 9/11 attacks should be punished. No one here has said otherwise.]

What makes you think that war is good for the economy? Check out this article by business analyst Peter Eavis ["The Rout Is Far From Over in Tech Stocks," TheStreet.com, September 27], which argues the opposite.

What sort of things has the Infantry done in the past 5 years that would best be forgotten? Our Antiwar Forum was visited by a gaggle of young special ops guys a while back and they talked about having killed people. Where is all this killing taking place?

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Types of Terrorism

Before talking about terrorism and the ways to eradicate it , we must define what terrorism really is....

...There are four major types of terrorism in the world ... :

After sorting out and having understood the types of terrorism, we can safely say that ending terrorism is only in the hands of bigger states. If they change their attitude towards smaller states and suppressed communities and find out the means to end the first two types of terrorism, the third type will automatically die out, because it is in the result of first two.

For example, if the Kashmir problem is solved according to the resolutions of the UNO and the wishes of the people of that area, there will be no insurgency – people will be satisfied and will not do anything which can be harmful to anybody.

Once the Kashmir problem is solved, automatically the movement will end and there will be peace all around. Same you can say about Palestine, if bigger states play their role and force Israel to show some flexibility and reach some kind of agreement with Palestine on solid grounds, I am sure the insurgency will end there too. But if bigger states don't perform what they are required to and just waste their energies and resources in finding and killing one person, I don't think they've done their job, because God knows how many Bin Ladens are in the making if the oppression stays the same in Kashmir, Palestine, or in other parts of the world.

~ G.M.L., Pakistan

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Single Source

Where are we getting our information? From a single source, right? We do not know who did this, we do not know who was on the planes, we do not know what evidence was left behind. We can believe the single source, but they lie for a living. The CIA is always found out thirty years later – never at the time.

~ Jesse in Yellow Knife (Canada)