[sloop]

i take it you can’t show me using the constitution what phrase was omitted from bush’s declaration of war

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

You keep mentioning this "declaration of war", but you keep failing to produce it.

But first, the President cannot declare war, so it cannot be "Bush's declaration of war".

Article I, Section 8 describes the powers of Congress. Line 11 states:

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

Only Congress can declare war.

[dead]

You're buying into the semantic argument that congress has been hiding behind for 60 years.

The reality is that they have abdicated the constitutionally specified power to declare war on other nations for political reasons. Generally, they are too scared to take a stand, and would rather let the president make the decision. Then they are free to cheer or snipe as the popularity of the war waxes and wanes.

Although it is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, common sense would dictate that a declaration of war would, at a minimum, somewhere contain the phrase "declaration of war" within it.

"Authorization of force" is typical weasly lawyer phrase, produced by the hundreds of typically weasly lawyers who have come to infest our congress.