And in all those situations we were in a state of declared war, with all of it's specific powers. Also, I don't think a suspension of habeus corpus or the detention of Japanese Americans are examples we need to be following here.
I give up. You are as bad, in your own way, as anyone posting to DU is. I wonder what you would say, if someone you knew was killed by a terrorist act, which could have been stopped, if only wire taps had been used.
The constitution grants congress the right to declare war AND to authorize other conflict and military action short of wardifferent than war. It's a simple fact. Read your constitution.
Congress authorized both the WOT and the campaign in IRaq by constitutional means.