Then there is the War Powers Act, enacted by a Democratic Congress over President Nixon’s veto, basically giving the president 90 days after the start of hostilities to come to Congress for approval. At the time, this was widely believed to be unconstitutional because it gave too much independent power to the president. More recently, presidents have felt free to ignore the War Powers Act because, they say, it unconstitutionally restrains the commander in chief.

It’s the Constitution that anoints the president as commander in chief. But the notion that this gives him unilateral authority to take this country into war — while, by contrast, the congressional power to declare war places no limits on the president’s authority to do the same — puts you in Humpty Dumpty territory, where a word “means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.” A commander at any level doesn’t get to choose the enemy…

It’s a mystery why presidents even want the unilateral power to take this country into war. That must surely be the most terrible decision a president has to make. You would think that having to share the credit is a small price to pay for getting to share the risk. And why should members of Congress get to mouth off about war all day, but not have to take shared responsibility for the yes-or-no decision?