War Powers - As Understood By Wise Men Who Actually Knew War

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      Our Founders knew war. Among the fifty-six signers of the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence in Congress, five were tortured by British troops before they died. Fourteen signers died. Twelve more lost their homes, property, and businesses to ransacking, looting, and burning by the British. Four had sons killed in battle or taken prisoner. Thousands of their countrymen lost their lives to British troops from 1773-1781. For life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For us all. 

     War was a real pursuit our Founders had experienced personally, not merely something they had observed on a video feed or television set. The tangible human costs of war were fresh in their minds when they gathered six years later, in 1787, to create our federal government in Philadelphia, with former General George Washington presiding over the Constitutional Convention. The separation of powers they wrote into our Constitution was intended by our Founders to preserve the safety of the American People from any single reckless individual abusing our national government to engage in acts which were not for the common good. The right to declare war for the "common defence" was reserved to Congress acting as a whole.

Our Founders On War Powers - Having Given America Liberty From An Absolute Ruler At Great Personal Cost

      The Founders explained their reasoning to their war weary countrymen, who were also eager to get on with developing America into an independent country with global reach. They wanted to trade directly with the rest of the world, and build their farms and businesses with minimal government interference in their lives. Quoting our Founders on the safety of the American People, or "national security" as that term is used today:

          "But the safety of the people of America against dangers from FOREIGN force depends not only on their forbearing to give JUST causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to INVITE hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are PRETENDED as well as just causes of war.

          "It is too true, however disgraceful it may be to human nature, that nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it; nay, absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it, but for the purposes and objects merely personal, such as thirst for military glory, revenge for personal affronts, ambition, or private compacts to aggrandize or support their particular families or partisans." 

    - John Jay, Federalist Paper #4, November 7, 1787. Founder. Descendant of Protestant Huguenot immigrants who had fled Catholic France in the 1680s after French King Louis XIV revoked the 1598 Edict of Nantes (executive order of prior French King Henry IV). This revocation abolished Protestant civil rights. King Louis XIV then confiscated Protestant Huguenot properties at will and awarded them to himself and to his most loyal followers. 

     John Jay signed the 1783 Treaty of Paris which formally ended the 1775-1781 Revolutionary War with British King George III. As First Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court 1789-1795, Jay served the American People in the co-equal Supreme Court, at the same time as George Washington served as the first President to manage the co-equal Executive Branch of the US government, which implemented policies and laws adopted by the co-equal Congress. 

     Eighty-five Federalist Papers were published in American newspapers between October 1787 and May 1788 to explain the Constitution to the American People, all three million of us then. Three Founders - John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison – wrote these papers explaining the new Constitution, which created three co-equal branches in our federal government. They explained the reasons for the separation of, and specific limitations on, the powers of each of the three branches. Federalist Paper #4 complete at:   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1404/1404-h/1404-h.htm#link2H_4_0002

     State legislatures voted in late 1787 and 1788 to ratify this new Constitution which created our  federal government, subject to the adoption of the Bill of Rights completed in 1791. Jay and Hamilton also served as the key Trustees of Columbia College (now Columbia University) after the Revolutionary War wrested control of America’s colleges from the influence of King George III. 

Our Founders On War Powers – Drafted Our 1787 Constitution Under The Guidance Of The Commanding General Of US Revolutionary Army George Washington

     Our Constitution, Article I section 8 clauses 11-16, places offensive war powers in the hands of Congress to call into service the forces needed to defend the nation:

          “To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

           To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

           To provide and maintain a Navy;

           To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

          To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

          To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;”

Our Constitution, Article II section 2 clause 1 defines the war powers of the President,  when called into actual service by Congressional declaration of war, and otherwise to defend in the event of a direct attack:

           “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;”

     The Founders were very clear – the constitutional separation of powers was intended to remove the possibility that ANY single individual would be able to blunder the US into a war with a foreign power. There was no standing army at the time of the Constitution’s implementation, except upon the instance of a declaration of war by Congress, when such an army was mobilized out of the militia forces and volunteer forces were raised. At such time, these forces drawn from these other places were placed under the command of the President.

Our 33rd President Eisenhower - Who Led The Liberation Of Europe From The Murderous Enslaving Dictator Hitler

     Our 33rd President, former World War II commanding general of Allied forces in Europe Dwight Eisenhower, who defeated the fascist Hitler, warned Americans in his 1961 farewell address about the abuse of war powers. He accurately described the scale and scope of our national defense complex - then already the largest on the planet - and the temptation to use force to solve global problems which can be resolved peacefully, raising these concerns about America even as the Soviet Union presented a mortal threat to liberty and democracy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHDgsh6WPyc

     In modern times we spend over 38% of all global expenditures on our military and intelligence operations and are responsible for 42% of all arms sales to other nations. We're 4.2% of the world's population - and our government has engaged in offensive acts of war which exceed constitutional authority of US presidents on a regular basis since World War II. Several of those, including the use of explicitly fraudulent intelligence likely sourced in America to enlist a multi-national force in Iraq to counter non-existent weapons of mass destruction, are recounted in this section of the website.

Constitutional War Powers, Illegal Bioweapon, and Neurowarfare

     Our Constitution clearly assigns the power to authorize the conduct of OFFENSIVE operations against other nations to Congress in Article I Section 8, Clause 11 "declare war." Our Founders, who generally opposed "foreign entanglements," mostly agreed this meant the President could act without specific authorization if the operation is defensive, limited in scope and purpose, and some relevant Congressional authorization had been given. NO ONE PERSON, regardless of title, can legitimately blunder the United States into a war, including by use of an illegal and internationally banned bioweapon used secretly.

     Under international law, nation-state retaliations for acts of war are supposed to be proportional to the initial attack upon them and directed at military targets. But, as a practical matter, acts of war can be met by any level of retaliation determined by the adversary to be within their own means. In modern times, this means nuclear weapons on targets of the adversary’s choice, such as American cities, is not beyond the realm of possible retaliations for our acts of war. 

     The collection of articles in the pdf below provide more detailed background on the Founder’s intent and actual use of war powers.  A discussion of modern neurowarfare begins at page 28 to provide the modern irregular warfare context which could, though not legally, incorporate the illegal bioweapon banned under the Senate ratified 1972 Bioweapon Treaty: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.37_conv%20biological%20weapons.pdf