I feel like Cassandra, as everywhere one turns, the war, unconstitutional as it is, will be won by patience, something that doesn't last a ten-minute news cycle on Spectrum News 9. Quagmire, failure, everything but what will end one of the most brutal regimes on Earth. Yet nobody seems to want to see the fall of 7th-century death cultists, despised by ~90% of Muslims, chanting and working to achieve Death to the Great Satan and the Little Satan. Mah Bar America, Mah Bar Israel. Rial at 2 milliom/$ and sinking. The Basij is the paramilitary "volunteer" force used extensively for internal security, civil enforcement, and crisis response. They are the foot soldiers who must be paid, and if not, they'll kill their IRGC overseers and work for the highest bidder. I can't figure out why the Mossad and Mukabarrat of the Sunni countries can't get crypto to the leaders and then the masses. That is where the regime crumbles, from the outer provinces in. The Political-Social-Media complex, h/t Michael Crichton, RIP, is cheering for the mullahs.
In practice, the constitutional allocation of war powers has operated very differently from the bare text for more than 70 years. Presidents of both parties have repeatedly ordered significant military campaigns—Korea, Vietnam, the 1991 Gulf War buildup and operations, Kosovo, Libya, the campaign against ISIS, and now the 2026 Iran conflict—without a formal declaration of war and often without a new, specific AUMF. Congress has almost always continued to appropriate the money that sustains those operations, and the courts have treated the question as a non-justiciable political issue, declining to intervene. The War Powers Resolution itself has never successfully forced a president to end a conflict the executive wished to continue; concurrent resolutions and funding threats have been symbolic or ineffective. Once forces are engaged and the national-security apparatus is committed, the practical reality is that the President directs the use of force and Congress’s formal “declare war” power is exercised mainly through after-the-fact acquiescence or political pressure rather than prior authorization. Against that backdrop, labeling the Iran campaign “unconstitutional” rests on a strict textual and originalist reading that the political branches and the judiciary have not enforced for generations. Common operational practice treats sustained but undeclared hostilities of this kind as falling within the President’s Commander-in-Chief and foreign-affairs authority so long as Congress continues to fund them and does not successfully cut off support. The text still says Congress must declare war; the working constitutional system treats that requirement as largely optional for modern conflicts short of total war.
Thanks. This is (hopefully) well-known to your readers. It does not make the practice lawful, it is as unconstitutional as all of the ones you mention. Part Unitary Executive, part lack of backbone by Congress. I heard an interview with Ro Khanna, or one of his ilk, complaining about the war and thought: “Why has Hakeem Jeffries not circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter signed by the Democratic Caucus againstthe war? They’re all up for re=election and have been since Feb. 28 and don’t want to give their opponents any tools. Same with the Trump Party (the GOP died a long time ago), who feel the same and don’t want to stir the Old Man’s ire on top of it. That all being said the IRGC will crumble, given time…
I feel like Cassandra, as everywhere one turns, the war, unconstitutional as it is, will be won by patience, something that doesn't last a ten-minute news cycle on Spectrum News 9. Quagmire, failure, everything but what will end one of the most brutal regimes on Earth. Yet nobody seems to want to see the fall of 7th-century death cultists, despised by ~90% of Muslims, chanting and working to achieve Death to the Great Satan and the Little Satan. Mah Bar America, Mah Bar Israel. Rial at 2 milliom/$ and sinking. The Basij is the paramilitary "volunteer" force used extensively for internal security, civil enforcement, and crisis response. They are the foot soldiers who must be paid, and if not, they'll kill their IRGC overseers and work for the highest bidder. I can't figure out why the Mossad and Mukabarrat of the Sunni countries can't get crypto to the leaders and then the masses. That is where the regime crumbles, from the outer provinces in. The Political-Social-Media complex, h/t Michael Crichton, RIP, is cheering for the mullahs.
In practice, the constitutional allocation of war powers has operated very differently from the bare text for more than 70 years. Presidents of both parties have repeatedly ordered significant military campaigns—Korea, Vietnam, the 1991 Gulf War buildup and operations, Kosovo, Libya, the campaign against ISIS, and now the 2026 Iran conflict—without a formal declaration of war and often without a new, specific AUMF. Congress has almost always continued to appropriate the money that sustains those operations, and the courts have treated the question as a non-justiciable political issue, declining to intervene. The War Powers Resolution itself has never successfully forced a president to end a conflict the executive wished to continue; concurrent resolutions and funding threats have been symbolic or ineffective. Once forces are engaged and the national-security apparatus is committed, the practical reality is that the President directs the use of force and Congress’s formal “declare war” power is exercised mainly through after-the-fact acquiescence or political pressure rather than prior authorization. Against that backdrop, labeling the Iran campaign “unconstitutional” rests on a strict textual and originalist reading that the political branches and the judiciary have not enforced for generations. Common operational practice treats sustained but undeclared hostilities of this kind as falling within the President’s Commander-in-Chief and foreign-affairs authority so long as Congress continues to fund them and does not successfully cut off support. The text still says Congress must declare war; the working constitutional system treats that requirement as largely optional for modern conflicts short of total war.
Thanks. This is (hopefully) well-known to your readers. It does not make the practice lawful, it is as unconstitutional as all of the ones you mention. Part Unitary Executive, part lack of backbone by Congress. I heard an interview with Ro Khanna, or one of his ilk, complaining about the war and thought: “Why has Hakeem Jeffries not circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter signed by the Democratic Caucus againstthe war? They’re all up for re=election and have been since Feb. 28 and don’t want to give their opponents any tools. Same with the Trump Party (the GOP died a long time ago), who feel the same and don’t want to stir the Old Man’s ire on top of it. That all being said the IRGC will crumble, given time…