[lepton]

every administration since 1945 has sought ways around asking for that consent.

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More properly, a declaration of war changes the legal system in ways that no President wants to add into the costs of the war. That a President can launch attacks on perceived enemies/threats has been well established since Jefferson - but a Declaration of War is something else, and our education system hasn’t bothered to address that. Think suspension of habeas corpus, death penalty for a variety of crimes, enhanced penalties against military members, and a wide variety of additional controls authorized while under a War Declaration. Really, that is most of what a Declaration of War gets you.

If we decided “Hey, let us take Mexico and keep it”, that would require a declaration of war. If the cartels attack across the border, or even attack Americans in a resort town in Aruba, that is long established (1801) as not requiring a declaration of war.

[Alberta's Child]

Good post. I would say the biggest distinction is that a nation like ours is set up to declare war to defend a sovereign country from foreign adversaries. These other military campaigns are designed to have the U.S. take sides in civil wars all over the globe in places that don’t threaten us in any way.