[elfman2 on another computer]

" One can't get out of treaty obligations just by calling something by a different name"

We more or less just did.

The Bush administration specifically asked Congress not to declare war. I looked that up for someone several months ago who was under the assumption that Congress just wimped out. I found a report of it on Google Groups search from shortly after 9/11. There were probably a host of reasons that a declaration of war was not desired. I don’t have time for more research today.

[inquest]

I think you'll find that the Geneva Convention will still apply to whatever military action we're about to take against Iraq, as it did in the last war with them.

But in any case, if it's true that the reason Congress hasn't explicitly declared war is that the authorization they passed has a different legal meaning than a declaration of war, then that's proof positive that Congress isn't following the Constitution. There's simply no way around that.