I wanted to share this email exchange I recently. I won’t say with whom I had it, but it started with this comment in response to my Stop Loss post on the VAMC Blog: “Did I miss something? Did Congress declare war recently?”

I’m sure you’ve heard this argument many times yourselves. Well, here’s my answer.

I guess my answer would be that the contract says in the event of war, not in the event of a declaration of war!! Semantics? Yes. But, we’re fighting right? When was the last time Congress officially “declared war” anyway? WWII? Also, I would ask how you “declare war” on a philosophy (like terrorism)? Since a “declaration of war” is a formal performative speech act or signing of a document by an authorised party of a government in order to initate a state of war between two or more nations, I would say that Congress “declared war” back on October 16, 2002, when they signed Public Law No: 107-243 authorizing the use of force against Iraq. Check the similarities in language between the Iraq declaration and the Japan declaration:

WWII-Japan: “the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United states” Nowhere in the authorization to use force do the words “declaration of war” exist. They use the term, “state of war”.

Iraq: “the President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to…defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.”

Germany “declared war” on the United States and thus the Congress reciprocated. The same goes with the state of war being declared against Italy, who “declared war” against us first. At little long winded, but I would say that Congress DID “declare war” six years ago.