But therein lies the problem. Especially without any of the other accountability mechanisms the framers once imagined, neither the president nor Congress has succeeded in policing the limits they themselves have set. In Iraq and Syria, unlike in Libya, there is no pretense that this is anything less than war in the constitutional sense. We will be leading the way, we will be firing the weapons, and we will be, in the president’s own contemplation, engaged for some time. As for not having “boots on the ground,” assurances on that matter seem belied by the presence already of more than a thousand U.S. military and other personnel in country. And by the announced promise of more to come.
Congress is no less culpable. It has not bestirred itself since 2001 to extend its authorization for the president to use military force beyond those groups actually responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001—which today’s ISIS was not. Neither has it been historically inclined to use the powerful check still in its arsenal: blocking the expenditure of funds for wars with which it disagrees.
For all their wisdom, the framers made one critical mistake in counting on the separation of powers to check the country’s march to war. Madison assumed individuals in power would be ambitious, would want to assert their views, and would want to use their power to affect change. Ambition in Congress would counteract ambition in the Executive, and the daily struggle would help keep all the branches in check. But ours has become a Congress lacking all ambition, preferring to hide in the shadows of presidents whose own political courage sometimes fails. Together, they have helped make it ever more possible for the American people to neither feel nor bear the costs of war.
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