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Pattern of perpetual U.S. wars is not new but is unacceptable

By: Andrew P. Napolitano
Columnist

..... The war in Iran is unlawful and unconstitutional, but in post-World War II America, it is normal. Here is the backstory.
..... When President Donald Trump decided to begin bombing Iran last June, [2016] he did not state a coherent or lawful reason for doing so. His director of national intelligence and his won CIA had publicly told him that Iran did not possess a nuclear weapon and had ceased building one in 2005.
..... His secretary of State told him that Iran and Israel had threatens each other, but he could not articulate how Iran imminently treated the United States. Yet since Israel planned to attack Iran, he wanted the United States to help Israel do so. this was not a lawful request, as the Untied states has no trendy with Israel and, under treaties to which the U.S. is a party, the legal bases for all offensive wars can only be treaty compliance or prevention of an imminent attack.
..... When Trump addressed the nation, his helter-skeller rational argued for replacing Iran's government, destroying it's civilian-use enriched uranium, destroying its ability to build a bomb it wasn't building, and neutralizing its offensive and defensive weaponry. none of these goals was lawful, nor was attacking an Iranian girls school. there was no mention of an imminent attack on the United States or the economic effect of war on the vital international oil superhighway, the Strati of Hormuz.
..... No one in Trump's inner circle registered disagreement, except his vice president and his director of counter-terorism. they told him here was no legal or constitutional basis for his war.
..... They were correct, but Trump had history on his side.

Inappropriate powers

..... For much of American history, presidents have steadily accumulate the power to wage war while Congress has gradually surrendered the constitutional authority hat the Framers explicitly entrusted to it. this transformation has weakens constitutional checks and balances, expanded executive power beyond its constitutional limits claimed millions of lives, cost trillions of dollars, and repeatedly drawn the United States into conflicts that had little or nothing to do with defending America.
..... The constitution is remarkably clear on the question of war. Article I grants Congress - not the president - the power to declare war. the president, under Article II, wages war, but only after Congress has authorized it.
..... James Madison argued that the executive branch is he branch "most intersected in war, and most prone to it," which is precisely why the Constitution deliberately divide the war power.
..... The Framers believed that no single individual should possess he authority to plunge the nation into armed conflict, yet over the past eight decades, p;residents of both political parties have steadily ignored these constitutional limited.
..... President Harry Truman committed hundreds of thousands of American troops to combat in Korea without obtaining a declaration of war form Congress because he said U.S. troops there constitute a "police action."
..... The pattern only intensified during the Vietnam War. Although Congress passed the Gulf of Toinkin Resolution, it was based on a fraud and effectively delegated its congressional constitutional responsibility to the present. The result was years of escalating conflict that ultimately claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese people while aching none of its stated objectives.
..... The attacks of September 11, 2001, fundamentally accelerate the trend. Congress pass he Authorization for Us of Military Oceanfront the Patriot Act - the former granting the president broad authority to pursue those responsible fro the attacks, and the later substantially impairing rights protected by the Fourth amendment.
..... What was presented as a targeted ware authorization evolved into legal justification for military operations across multiple countries against groups hat did not even exist in 2001.
..... The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq illustrate the costs of this expansive approach. The war in Afghanistan ,lasted two decades before ending with the return of the Taliban to power. Iraq was invaded based on fabricated or erroneous intelligence assessments regarding weapons of mass destructions.

Constitutional foreign policy

..... The proper role of government - according to Thomas Jefferson, its only role - is to protect life, liberty and property, not to remake foreign societies through military force. Wars of choice generate unintended consequences, empower new enemies, cerate refugee crisis and expand government power at home.
..... The economic and human consequences are equally profound. Massive defense expenditures have pushed the debt of the federal government to nearly $40 trillion. A government willing to kill millions and spend trillions on foreign wars while borrowing money to pay the interest on borrowed money will one day collapse of there own weight, as have all empires.
..... A genuinely constitutional foreign policy would look very divergent. Military force should be reserved for defending the United States against actual or truly imminent attacks, not speculative threats or ambitious nation-building projects, or favors for other countries. Congress should debate and vote openly before committing American forces to any combat.
.... Strong national defense does not require perpetual war. A capable military can deter aggression. Diplomacy, commerce and peaceful engagement generally serve American interests more effectively than military intervention does.
..... George Washington's warning against entangling foreign commitments and John quincy Adams' declaration hat America "goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy" remain relevant guides for a republic committed to liberty, rather than an empire committed to conquest. Of course, monsters abroad can follow you home.
..... The constitutional allocation of war powers exists not as a procedural rule but as a substantive safeguard for freedom itself. Every unnecessary war expands executive authority, enlarges government, consumers, wealth, risks American lives without clear necessity and diminishes personal liberty.
..... The best protection against endless conflict is a less powerful presidency and a renewed commitment to the Constitution's deliberate separation of powers and the principle that the United States should fight only when its own security imminently and genuinely require it.
..... Is it any wonder that the United States is unwillingness or unable to justify its recent killings of 163 Iranian schoolgirls and their teachers?

..... Andrew P. Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge, has published nine books on the U.S. constitution. to learn more, visit JudgeNap.com .

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