NO UNDECLARED WARS
The U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, says "The Congress shall have power ... To declare war".
This is not hard to understand. The President is acting outside the bounds of his Constitutional authority when he decides, on his own, that we are going to bomb this little country or that little country. It causes dismay to all people of good will when the President goes to war, so casually, with so little apparent reason, and with no Declaration Of War from Congress.
Congress occasionally passes a vague resolution supposedly giving the President the authority to do whatever he pleases in making war on anybody and everybody. This is the palest of feeble excuses. In passing such resolutions, the Congress is re-writing the Constitution and abandoning its solemn responsibility of deciding when and where and on whom the United States of America will make war.
War is a horror for those involved in it. It destroys the lives and families of many innocent people as well as those who are fighting. War should only be declared as the very last resort. It is both unconstitutional and morally wrong to attack foreign countries without a formal declaration of war passed by the Congress in accordance with the plain statement of the U.S. Constitution.
None of the countries we have bombed in the last two decades has posed any clear and present danger to America.
People don't like getting bombed. We are generating worldwide hatred against America. The Arabs used to like us. They do not like us any more. This is a very bad thing.
It would be very nice if we could bring liberty to the world by bombing some little country from time to time. But it doesn't work. And it is turning the love which the world used to have for America into hatred.
There has been no Declaration Of War by the U.S. Congress since 1941. And yet we have fought in many many wars, and we have hundreds of military bases all over the world.
Thomas Jefferson said, "If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.".
Thomas Jefferson said, "In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.".
George Washington said, "The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.".