Sorta OT, but military related question, War Crimes

From: (Peter Stickney)
Date: 8/16/2004 9:17 AM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

In article ,
(B2431) writes:
From: (Peter Stickney)



Howard, that's nonsense. There is no such thing as a formal
Declaration of War. There never has been.

Better read the Constitution where it says only Congress has the authority
to
declare war. They have done this exactly six times: Revolution, 1812,
Mexican,
Civil, Spanish-American, WW1 and WW2.

Uhm, nobody has said that they aren't the authority.

Actually I was responding to a fool who said no one had the Constitutional
authourity since there was no mention in the Constitution.

But people miss
teh point on just what a Declaration of War is. The short version is
this. If Congress passes a law stating that the President (Executive)
has the authority to use force on somebody, that's a Declaration of
War. If they vote money to support these operations, that's a
declaration that a State of War exists. If somebody else declares war
on us, in whatever colorful way their culture or personality dictates,
then a State of War exists. You don't have to say "This is a
Declaration of War", and file it with the Hague. You state that
there's a perceived need to use force on somebody, and that it's
O.K. with you.

And, uhm, I'd brush up on some history, too - Y'see, the United States
Congress, with the powers it has, didn't exist until the 1790s.

Please note I corrected myself in a later post.

snip

You also seem to ahve missed the Barbary Coast War, as well, when we
de3cided that since we couldn't affort to bribe the
Pirates/Governments in what is now Libya, we'd whack them, instead.
(As in the Shores of Tripoli).

No declaration of war. They voted funds.


As for formal declarations nations/states have been doing just that for a
few
millenia.

Usually my marching/sailing/flying over the borders of somebody's
country, and whacking the crap out of it.

I'm sure you have done that many times.

--
Pete Stickney

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

In article ,
(B2431) writes:
From: (Peter Stickney)
Date: 8/16/2004 9:17 AM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

In article ,
(B2431) writes:
From: (Peter Stickney)



Howard, that's nonsense. There is no such thing as a formal
Declaration of War. There never has been.

Better read the Constitution where it says only Congress has the authority
to
declare war. They have done this exactly six times: Revolution, 1812,
Mexican,
Civil, Spanish-American, WW1 and WW2.

Uhm, nobody has said that they aren't the authority.

Actually I was responding to a fool who said no one had the Constitutional
authourity since there was no mention in the Constitution.

I'm confused, here. As far as I can tell, teh only one that you've
replied to on this thread is me. I haven't ever said that nobody has
the Constitutional Authority to declare war. What I have said, )as I
keep distilling it) is that there is no hard and fast definition, and
certainly isn't in the Constitution, of what constitutes a
Declaration of War. You don't need a gilt-edged certificate with
"Declaration of War" embossed on it. Authorizing teh use of force,
and supplying funds to apply that force is sufficient.

But people miss
teh point on just what a Declaration of War is. The short version is
this. If Congress passes a law stating that the President (Executive)
has the authority to use force on somebody, that's a Declaration of
War. If they vote money to support these operations, that's a
declaration that a State of War exists. If somebody else declares war
on us, in whatever colorful way their culture or personality dictates,
then a State of War exists. You don't have to say "This is a
Declaration of War", and file it with the Hague. You state that
there's a perceived need to use force on somebody, and that it's
O.K. with you.

And, uhm, I'd brush up on some history, too - Y'see, the United States
Congress, with the powers it has, didn't exist until the 1790s.

Please note I corrected myself in a later post.

Indeed you did - sorry 'bout that.

You also seem to ahve missed the Barbary Coast War, as well, when we
decided that since we couldn't affort to bribe the
Pirates/Governments in what is now Libya, we'd whack them, instead.
(As in the Shores of Tripoli).

No declaration of war. They voted funds.

You're missing the point - voting funds for the use of force _is_ a
Declaration of War. For that matter, not voting the funds, but
authorizing the use of force for whatever reason, and running it out
of Petty Cash is a Declaration of War. The key is the authorization
to use force.
Now, if we were to get into the question of Letters of Marque and
Reprisal, and the authorization of Privateers...

As for formal declarations nations/states have been doing just that for a
few
millenia.

Usually my marching/sailing/flying over the borders of somebody's
country, and whacking the crap out of it.

I'm sure you have done that many times.


I haven't had to. I was invited to the Gulf, Honduras, and
Cameroon. But let's ee- the various Egyptians, Greeks, Medes,
Persians, Etruscans, Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Vikings, Goths,
Arabs, Turks, Indians, Moors, Spanish, Dutch, French, English, Scots,
(I'm not aware of the Welch invading anybody) Germans, Russians,
Austro-Hungarians & what-all have certainly made that precedent quite
clear.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster