Much attention has been focused on the War Powers Act. Most agree that it has done little to curb military adventurism by this Administration. Baker and Christopher have headed a group that has recently come up with some technical revisions to the War Powers Act. However, I submit that these statutes have failed in every way since 1973 to redress the imbalance of power between the Legislative and the Executive Branches. Furthermore, no minor repair to the Act is going to suddenly protect Congress’s right to declare war under the Constitution.
War Powers, whether by statute or by Constitution, is all screwed up because the balance of power in all things military is grossly biased toward the Executive Branch. The all-mighty dollar just isn’t enough in the hands of the Legislative Branch to cause the Executive Branch to alter course one iota. No War Powers Act, past, present, or future is going to make a dent in this problem until: 1) representatives have the power to directly override the Commander in Chief upon good cause; 2) the appointment of flag-rank officers in all branches is largely de-coupled from the Executive Branch (so that their loyalty is not practically vested solely in the President, and so some semblance of appointment for merit re-enters the picture; and 3) the Joint Chiefs and the insanely byzantine parallel chains of command must go and be replaced by a General Staff system with a deterministic chain-of-command.
Left with just the purse, the Legislative Branch assumes all the political risks of cutting off funding for an ongoing military operation. By contrast, the Executive Branch is in a no-lose situation. Cutoff the funding and the Executive Branch can (and will) transfer responsibility for the failure of the operation squarely on the shoulders of Congress. Provide funds grudgingly, and the People see Congress as complicit in the disaster. Either way, Congress fails to check Executive power. Ultimately, something short of impeachment is necessary so that, on good cause shown, the Legislative branch can seize the military wheel and steer us back on course.
This is a much larger undertaking than a mere re-write of the War Powers Act. The balance of power must be redressed if needless adventurism by the Executive is to be curbed.
