Congress Must Speak Up on Iraq

Morton H. Halperin and Gary M. Stern. Morton H. Halperin is the director and Gary M. Stern is legislative counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office., The Christian Science Monitor

AS Congress begins its last session before the election, it is likely to shun the most fundamental decision it is empowered to make: deciding whether to go to war against Iraq. While the president has taken control of our military policy, Congress has kept a low profile, as if it had no say on the matter.

The question of who should make the decision to commit the nation to the use of military force is one that Congress has been all too willing to ignore, even though the Constitution states that only "the Congress shall have power to ... declare war," and notwithstanding the fact that in 1973 Congress passed the War Powers Resolution, over President Nixon's veto, stating …

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Publication information: Article title: Congress Must Speak Up on Iraq. Contributors: Morton H. Halperin and Gary M. Stern. Morton H. Halperin is the director and Gary M. Stern is legislative counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office. - Author. Newspaper title: The Christian Science Monitor. Publication date: September 1, 1990. Page number: 18. © 2009 The Christian Science Publishing Society. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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