President needs OK by Congress for Iraq war
By Scot Lehigh
Editorial
The Boston Globe
8/23/2002
FOR A COUNTRY that President Bush likes to call united, there has been an awful lot of division about Iraq.
A large portion of the public is skeptical about any war that would lead to significant loss of American troops. The military itself is so riven with doubts that confidential discussions about war plans regularly leak to the press. Although everyone agrees he's an evil thug, foreign policy experts are split about how dire a threat Saddam Hussein actually poses to this country.
Even some of the most prominent Republicans in Congress are dubious. Richard Armey, the House majority leader from Texas, has said we shouldn't attack Iraq, while US Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska has warned about the regional consequences of such action.
Those doubts run all the way to the Bush family's extended circle. Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under both President Gerald Ford and President George H.W. Bush, has publicly counseled against military measures to oust the Iraqi dictator.
Down home on the ranch on Wednesday, the president, facing what he calls a ''churning'' of speculation about potential war plans, seemed to have cooled his jets some, saying he would take his time on Iraq.
''Not only will we consult with friend and allies, we'll consult with members of Congress,'' Bush said.
But much more than consultation is needed here. If the president really intends to attack Iraq, he should take his case to Congress and seek a formal declaration of war.
Presidents have fallen out of the habit of doing that, certainly. The fifth and last time Congress formally declared war was prior to our entrance into World War II. During the 41/2 decades of the Cold War, an imperial executive largely usurped war-making powers, sometimes committing the country to military action without any sort of congressional approval.
But with the Cold War a decade behind us, it's past time for the legislative branch to reassert its constitutional prerogative. Certainly the arguments against congressional involvement are well short of persuasive.
The need for swift action? Bush himself has said this can wait. Secrecy? Leaked war plans are already in the public realm. Intelligence sensitivities? As we saw in the war in Afghanistan, evidence can be credibly evaluated without compromising sources.
As to the contention that authorization for the war in Afghanistan stretches to cover Iraq as well, Congress purposefully tailored its Afghanistan resolution to avoid granting carte blanche to the president.
Contrariwise, arguments in favor of seeking a declaration of war are compelling. First and foremost is this: In contemplating military action against Iraq, Bush is proposing a fundamental reordering of the US foreign policy paradigm, a shift from the concept of deterrence to that of preemptive action against potential adversaries. A change in foreign policy philosophy of that magnitude should only be undertaken with the specific approval of Congress.
Second, though Iraq remains troubling, suspicions that Saddam's agents were involved in the Sept. 11 terror attacks or the anthrax letters or that Saddam's regime represents a real danger to the United States hasn't been established in convicing fashion.
It's not just Bush who seems reluctant to abide by constitutional formalities, of course. So far, congressional Democrats have been mostly content to see events go forward without vocally insisting on their constitutional prerogative.
''In the exercise of its foreign policy power, and especially its war-making power, Congress has basically ceded to the president over a period of years the decision in going to war,'' notes Lee Hamilton, former chairman of the House International Relations Committee and now director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
US foreign policy is poorly served by that development, says Hamilton, who thinks Bush should seek a new congressional authorization before taking military action against Iraq.
That would be better than nothing, certainly. Yet ultimately that, too, is a half-step. If the president is truly determined to commit American troops to a war against Iraq, he should take the case to Congress, subject his evidence and reasons to its scrutiny, and seek a formal declaration of war before moving forward.
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Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.
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