The
Case for War
October 9, 2002
By James O. B. Keener
 The
Constitution of the United States reserves for congress the
sole authority and responsibility to declare war. It is not
the prerogative of the executive branch of government to declare
war, only to wage war. There have been times in history when
the executive branch has engaged combat troops on foreign
soil without congress's formal declaration, but those occasions
have, for the most part, occurred in the 50 years subsequent
to World War II.
The Korean War was undertaken as a so-called police action
of the United Nations. While probably inappropriate, the Korean
War was fought, and American troops died, were wounded and
served in combat without the sanction of congress's formally
declaring war. Also, American adventures in Latin America,
including the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama and Haiti,
were combat actions for which congress did not debate the
possibility of declaring war.
The country's major experience with fighting an undeclared
war was the Vietnam War, and the consequences proved disastrous-for
national institutions and for society as a whole. Our first
forays into Vietnam were as "invited" advisers to the so-called
South Vietnamese government, then the Tonkin Gulf incident
occurred that prompted congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
President Lyndon B. Johnson used the Tonkin Gulf Resolution
as his authority to send in millions of American men and women
to fight. More than American 50,000 military personnel died
and many more were wounded. Countless thousands more Vietnamese
military and civilians suffered death and wounds in that conflict.
The Vietnam War ripped the fabric of American society. Because
congress did not fully debate the issue of a war in Asia and
exercise its responsibility of due diligence, public support
for the war was suspect. Opinion polls in 1964 and 1965 generally
favored our entry into the conflict, but the propaganda machine
of the executive branch of government shaped those opinion
polls. When the reality of the war was exposed, public opinion
dissipated overnight. It turned out that the Tonkin Gulf incident
never happened at all-it was a sham. Public skepticism ratcheted
upward.
The so-called Gulf War in 1991 was the most recent undeclared
war America fought (if we don't count the feckless effort
in Somalia). That war again was a joint effort of the United
Nations to ensure the integrity of the borders of Kuwait after
Saddam Hussein's troops overran that country and threatened
Saudi Arabia. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are major oil producing
countries (Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserves of any
nation on Earth). The conflict of that war lasted only a few
days or weeks, although public attention was focused on the
issue for more than a year. Once the fighting started, it
was over before American casualties surpassed 25 or 30 dead,
maybe fewer. Public support remained high before, during and
after the Gulf War.
Today, Americans find themselves again pondering the likelihood
of going to war-this time again in the Middle East facing
Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein has not overrun the borders
of any of his neighbors, but he is still in power in Iraq
after having lost the Gulf War in 1991, and he remains in
power by ruthless means.
The powers that be in the executive branch are hell bent
to remove Saddam Hussein from his seat atop the Iraqi government.
There seems to be little international support for America
to take military action and the American public seems quite
divided on the issue.
To legally justify such an adventure, and to generate public
confidence behind such an action, congress must engage in
a thorough open and public examination of the issues and vote
on a formal declaration of war. Only then will the people
of this nation support the action and its aftermath with their
hearts and minds and sons and daughters. It is especially
important that a declaration of war be formally voted on by
congress because it is apparent that the United States intends
on launching an unprovoked invasion on another nation recognized
as such by the United Nations and the community of nations
at large.
I submit the following proposed declaration of war as a pretty
well thought out justification for war against Saddam Hussein.
It is tedious to read, but a necessary exercise all citizens,
and certainly members of congress, should engage in prior
to sending American soldiers to fight and die in a foreign
land.
A Declaration of War
WHEREAS, on September 11, 2001, the United States sustained
severe attacks conducted by a terrorist organization believed
to be al-Qaeda;
WHEREAS, the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Ladin, was a former
citizen of Saudi Arabia;
WHEREAS, 15 of the 19 participants in the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks were citizens of Saudi Arabia;
WHEREAS, large segments of the population of Saudi Arabia
support Osama bin Ladin and al-Qaeda, both financially and
politically;
WHEREAS, Osama bin Ladin's organization was located in the
mountains of Afghanistan;
WHEREAS, the United States, with strong international support,
attacked Afghanistan and overthrew that country's fundamentalist
Islamic government, the Taliban;
WHEREAS, the administration of Designated President George
W. Bush has been unable to meet its own objectives in its
response to the terrorist attack-mainly the capture or death
of Osama bin Ladin or the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad
Omar;
WHEREAS, the administration of the designated president has
been completely unable to secure Afghanistan or to keep al-Qaeda
operatives from returning to that territory;
WHEREAS, the administration of the designated president has
been completely unable to cut off funding to al-Qaeda;
WHEREAS, the designated president wants to avoid any examination
into the likelihood that the events of September 11, 2001,
represented the greatest failure in the history of America's
intelligence community;
WHEREAS, the designated president, the designated vice president,
Attorney General John Ashcroft and the designated president's
other handlers have failed to learn any of the lessons of
history about the abuse of authority in the rise and fall
of Germany's Third Reich under Adolf Hitler or the tyrannical
rule of the former Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin as those
rights pertain to civil liberties (probably the designated
president didn't know there were any lessons to be learned);
WHEREAS, the designated president and the attorney general
have violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution of the
United States and it is imperative that public attention to
that fact is deflected;
WHEREAS, the economy of the United States is in the poorest
shape it has experienced in more than a decade and it is necessary
for the designated president to change the subject of public
discussion to something other than the economy;
WHEREAS, the designated president has squandered the most
robust economy in the history of the United States and put
the nation's economy in deficit for as far into the future
as the eye can see and it is necessary to divert public attention
away from that fact;
WHEREAS, the designated president is trying to deflect attention
from his own misdeeds of corporate thuggery prior to his being
designated as president of the United States;
WHEREAS, the designated vice president of the United States,
Dick Cheney, equally wants to deflect attention from his own
misdeeds of corporate thuggery prior to his being designated
as vice president of United States;
WHEREAS, the designated president has succeeded in looting
the treasury of the United States by giving outrageous tax
breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent of the population (who
presumably are all his chums), a topic that can be ignored
by beating the drums of war;
WHEREAS, Saddam Hussein is believed by most people in the
world to be a nut-case;
WHEREAS, the designated president has pronounced Saddam Hussein
to be an evil bad guy (presumably after consulting with God);
WHEREAS, there is not one piece of credible evidence that
Iraq has any connection to al-Qaeda, Osama bin Ladin, or the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States;
WHEREAS, the designated vice president has stated on several
occasions that Iraq might be acquiring weapons of mass destruction,
but has offered no evidence of that assertion;
WHEREAS, the secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, has stated
that Saddam Hussein is a threat to U. S. interests, but has
offered no evidence of that assertion;
WHEREAS, the designated president's national security adviser,
Condoleezza Rice, has said there is no need for the administration
to provide any evidence of Iraq's acquiring or developing
weapons of mass destruction;
WHEREAS, it is recognized that the ulterior motive behind
an attack by the United States of America on the state of
Iraq is to destabilize the governments of all Middle Eastern
countries with the intent of gaining absolute control of the
vast oil resources in that region (in specific), and destabilize
the entire Islamic world with the intention of imposing Judeo-Christian
philosophies on all Islamic populations (in general);
WHEREAS, none of the designated president's advisers who
advocate a regime change in Iraq have had any experience in
the military (even the designated president's military experience
in the Texas Air National Guard included one year AWOL);
WHEREAS, all of the designated president's advisers who have
had military experience (particularly in combat), and know
the necessary commitment required for success of such an adventure,
are opposed to a U. S. invasion of Iraq;
WHEREAS, Saddam Hussein has proven to be wilier than any
U. S. president in the past 20-plus years as evidenced by
his retaining his position while at least three U. S. presidents
have left office;
WHEREAS, the designated president is eager to prove his "rogue
nation" theory by turning the United States into one;
WHEREAS, the designated president is completing his promise
to be a "uniter, not a divider" by uniting the whole world's
opinion against the United States of America;
WHEREAS, the designated president presides over the least
legitimate and least credible United States administration
in more than 130 years; and
WHEREAS, many members of the Congress of the United States
are determined to prove that they are a collection of the
some of the biggest damned fools in the history of Western
Civilization;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Congress of the United States
of America declares war on the state of Iraq.
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