WEEK 14: THE PRESIDENT & WAR MAKING POWERS

The Department of Defense announced on November 18, 2006, the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Captain John R. Dennison, 24, of Ijamsville, Maryland, died on November 15, 2006, in Balad, Iraq, as a result of small arms fire. Dennison was assigned to 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 

THIS LAST U.S. PRESIDENTS CLASS IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF CPT. JOHN RYAN DENNISON, THE SON OF JACK AND SHANNON DENNISON, OLD FRIENDS OF OURS FROM MY EARLIER MILITARY DAYS. PLEASE GO HERE TO SEE MORE ABOUT THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF JOHN RYAN DENNISON.

In this our last class, we will review the constitutional framework for presidential war powers and discover that the Constitution does not provide us with authoritative answers as to how the powers of the president as commander in chief are to be exercised. In fact, the debates of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 focused on the power of Congress to declare war and specific powers over the military found in Article 1. However, the commander in chief clause found in Article 2 of the Constitution does give some specific powers to the president and this forms the basis for the debate over presidential power in times of national emergency.

This week in our class handout we will discuss the following topics:

• A Christian Perspective on War
• The Constitutional Framework of the President's War-Making Powers
• Presidents and the Military Establishment
• The Military Chain of Command
• Presidential Use of the Armed Forces
• Legitimizing Presidential War Making
• The War Powers Resolution of 1973
• Instances of Use of U.S. Armed Forces Abroad 1798-2023

In more than 400 instances, U.S. presidents have relied on their constitutional prerogatives as commander in chief to use the armed forces abroad in situations of conflict or potential conflict to protect U.S. citizens or promote U.S. interests. Fewer than half of these situations involved any prior legislative or Congressional authorization. In October 2023, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) prepared for Congress an updated report and detailed listing of notable deployments of U.S. Military Forces overseas between 1798 and 2023 (58 pages in length). To view this listing click on here. In fact there have been only five (5) times in American history when presidents have used the armed forces with congressional declarations of war.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush named the Axis-of-Evil nations in his response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, there has been legitimate debate and interpretations of the Catholic just war tradition by Christians as they formulate a responsible U.S. answer to the terrorist threat. In this 2005 article "Bush vs. Benedict", you can read here how Catholic neoconservatives grapple with their Church's just war tradition. 

Meanwhile back in 2001, after the 9/11 attack, James V. Schall, S.J. wrote an extensive commentary on the War on Terror entitled "Assessing What is at Issue in this War" and Patrick Buchanan commented on Colin Powell's remarks on Terrorism on the 6th anniversary of 9-11 in his article "Is Terrorism Really a Mortal Threat?". 

In June 2012, Mr. Buchanan offered commentary on the uprising in Syria by contrasting it to the Spanish Civil War which he describes as the Great Rehearsal for World War II in his article "Dress Rehearsal for a Mideast War?". And in November 2012, he analyzed the darkness of the still current situation in the Middle East and suggests President Obama ask himself this question, "How would America's vital interests be imperiled by staying out of this particular quarrel, conflict or war?"  See his article entitled "Is Middle East Peace a Mirage?"

Now that President-Elect Trump is poised to take over our government and foreign policy in January 2017, Mr. Buchanan last month commented in his column "A Trump Doctrine - 'America First' " that "The opportunity is at hand for Trump to reconfigure U.S. foreign policy to the world we now inhabit, and to the vital interests of the United States." Is it too much to hope that finally we may have a President who will recognize our foreign wars are bankrupting our country and morals and that it is finally time to stop fighting other countries wars, paying their bills for defense and just maybe we can truly consider the Catholic just war tradition before using our armed forces abroad in situations of potential conflict.

An Army Honor Guard members carry the remains of Army Captain John Ryan Dennison
during funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery Wednesday, November 29, 2006