According to Ron Paul the war in Iraq is Illegal?

[dragonoverlord]

I heard Ron Paul say (On TV) that in order for the united states to be able to wage a war they have to make a declearation of war through congress or something? and that the Bush admin didn't do that? Can someone explain this in more detail to me?

[wasup]

Well the president needs a declaration of war to declare war. And bush didn't have one (he declared it as some sort of emergency or not necessarily a war). Thus, it is illegal. Not much more complex than that.

[ninja9578]

The president does not have the ability to declare war, only congress does. They can bypass that by declaring it a police action instead, which was the case in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and now in Gulf War 2. It is technically not unconstitutional because congress does have the power to stop it (they can chose not to fund it or deploy troops.) A great example of this is going on right now. Congress said that Bush doesn't have the power to build permanent bases in Iraq. Bush thinks he has the ability to override that decision and is trying to do it anyway. Congress isn't giving him the money to do so.

[dragonoverlord]

The president does not have the ability to declare war, only congress does. They can bypass that by declaring it a police action instead, which was the case in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and now in Gulf War 2. It is technically not unconstitutional because congress does have the power to stop it (they can chose not to fund it or deploy troops.) A great example of this is going on right now. Congress said that Bush doesn't have the power to build permanent bases in Iraq. Bush thinks he has the ability to override that decision and is trying to do it anyway. Congress isn't giving him the money to do so. A police action? Can you expand on this. Was iraq really a situation where such a "police action" was waranted?

[ninja9578]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_action That's the information on Police Action. No, Saddam Hussein authorized assassination of Bush's father in the late eighties. We were going there regardless if it was warranted or not.

[Bearsy]

The Iraq Occupation(its not a war in the least) is 100% illegal because as the said, only congress can declare war... The Army is in Iraq because of 4 things. 1) Bush Jr. was pissed off at Hussein for making Bush Sr. look like a fool/authorizing an assassination attempt. 2) Oil. 3) Contracts for Halliburton and those other companies that Cheney has influence/stock in to rebuild Iraq afterwards. 4) Social Control Iraq is and was none of our business. Plain and simple. We need to deal with our own shit before we try to police the world.