"The eerie non-debate we're having as vast preparations for battle are made before our eyes is a consequence of a long-running constitutional scandal: the withering away of the requirement of a congressional declaration of war. Oh, the words are still there, of course, but presidents of both parties flagrantly ignore them -- sometimes with fancy arguments that are remarkably unpersuasive, but mainly by now with shrugging indifference. The result is not just a power shift between the branches of government but a general smothering of debate about, or even interest in, the decision to go to war among citizens in general."
"It's often said that modern warfare has no place for an 18th century conceit like the declaration of war. (This is said, in fact, by people who usually insist that the original intent of the Constitution's Framers requires no concessions to modernity.)"
The second paragraph pegs you rather well.