Passing authorizations allows the military to execute their part of the war without invoking the War Powers Act and other like expansions of power, including suspension of habeus corpus. I would think civil libertarians would appreciate doing it that way.
The distinction I made is not something new: it dates back to the Founding Fathers, and was specifically invoked during the wars on the Barbary Pirates.
Personally I prefer the actual declaration of War as prescribed under the constitution because it allows for definable objectives. Congress can undeclare when objectives are met and the military men and women can come home. I don’t believe in just passing a resolution and leaving everything up to the president. I believe this is a grave mistake and if you look at the military efforts since a war was actually declared I would suggest there is overwhelming evidence of instances where the objective has been abandoned or met and we’re still there. i.e Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Afghan war has gone on longer than WW1 and WW2 combined. This is simply ridiculous...