Stardate 20011013.1418 (On Screen): In numerous contexts, one claim that has been made by anti-war participants is "How can this be a war without a formal Declaration of War having been passed by Congress?" The answer is that Congress passed what amounted to a declaration of war a couple of days after the attacks in NYC and DC. "'What amounts to' isn't the same as a real Declaration of War." Well, actually, it is. This article explains the legal background behind it. When Congress authorized military activity as part of a supplemental appropriations bill, it was working within the context of the War Powers Act, which itself was passed within the legal framework of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. All that section says is that Congress has the power to declare war; it doesn't say that war requires a formally labeled "declaration" as such. Congress itself gets to decide what a declaration of war (or nearly anything else it does) looks like, and it made that decision with the War Powers Act. The War Powers Act has been tested in court and found to be constitutional. We
are legally at war, and have been since September 14.
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