The President’s Call, Essay Example

The issue of how American military forces should be employed in conflict abroad. Is it strictly the president’s call? What is Congress’s role? Are the restrictions in the War Powers Resolution of 1973 realistic? How should this issue be resolved?

The United States constitution bestows congress and the head of state dissimilar duties over armed forces action, however, long disputes exist regarding where the powers start and conclude for either party. The United States Constitution authorizes the head of state to wage warfare as the commander n chief, whereas, Congress is given the power to make warfare declarations. In actuality, Congress is permitted to consent to hostilities at whichever level and finance them. Legal intellectuals hugely agree that heads of state can order United States troops to go to battle when the nation is attacked or in view of an imminent attack. Nevertheless, chief administrators from the two main parties often diverge with the legislative body over their capacity to set off military action within other combat state of affairs. Heads of state have shown greater supremacy to wage warfare since the conclusion of the Second World War (Zeisberg, 2013).

The restrictions within the 1973 Warfare Powers Resolution is not realistic. This is because even though the measure was supposed to offer additional harmonization between the execution and lawmaking branches on force utilization, it does not wholly deal with the concern of winding down a variance. The issue can be resolved by getting rid of the War Powers Resolution. This is in view of the fact that it is an undemocratic violation on the executive branch power. Heads of states have submitted more than 120 reports in total to the legislative body pursuant to the Warfare Powers Resolution. For instance, in head of state Ford presented a report in 1975 to the legislative body because of his command to the United States military forces to take back the Mayaguez, a United States merchant ship that Cambodia had seized. His report set off the sixty-day limit of time; though the operation ended prior to the sixty days expiration. Another example refers to time the legislative body empowered George Bush to utilize force in opposition to Iraq, pursuant to the Resolution (Zeisberg, 2013).

Reference

Zeisberg, M. A. (2013). War powers: The politics of constitutional authority. Oxford: Princeton University Press,