I am reminded of a rather risque' (possibly apocryphal) story which was widely told in Louisiana during integration days.
Leander Perez, head honcho in Plaquemines Parish, resolved to resist forced immigration any way he could. As the story goes, he and Governor Earl Long (Huey's younger brother) were standing side by side at a urinal in the Louisiana State Capitol building. Long said to Perez, "I know you don't like it, Leander, but what are we gonna do now that the Feds have got themselves the ay-tomic bomb?"
In other words, states' rights are no longer even close to a match for federal might.
However, it should be noted that while the federal government has the ay-tomic bomb (by which I mean the ability to coerce others to do things they don't want to do) in practice it's the President with his finger on the button.
The President is the Commander-in-Chief. Accordingly, the US has been involved in something like 200 military conflicts in which Congress never declared war. Since World War II, Congress has never actually formally declared war even once, despite all the military actions we have been engaged in.
writ.news.findlaw.com
Take, for example, Jefferson's attack on the Barbary Pirates. No declaration of war there. Hamilton argued that when another country attacked the US, we were already in a state of war, and there was no need for Congress to declare war. Congress apparently agreed.
caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
Here's a question for you to chew on (irrelevant to Iraq but relevant to Al Qaeda): can war be declared if the enemy is not a state? |
