No Thanks, Mr. President

President Obama has asked the Congress for authorization to use military force against Syria to punish Bashar Assad’s regime for its use of chemical weapons. Yet what he asks of Congress is not easy for it to do, and is perhaps neither necessary nor proper.

In almost every declaration of war it has passed since the War of 1812, Congress has “authorized” the president to “use the whole land and naval force of the United States” to bring the war to a successful conclusion. But Obama insists that what he is calling for is not war, and hence congressional permission is only, as the lawyers say, “precatory” and politically useful, but not necessary.

“I believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization,” Obama said the other day. His secretary of state, in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the same point. John Kerry told his former peers, “What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional.” A limited strike against Syria “doesn’t mean the United States of America is going to war,” he insisted.

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