by Dean Ralph

Created on: June 14, 2010   Last Updated: November 29, 2010

The ages old debate of war. An argument that has been going since the early days of man. An argument that has yet to be won, or lost. There will always be those for and those opposed, the only thing that will change are the names and faces.

As for this particular war, there are several things that must be looked at before making a valid argument either for or against the War in Iraq. First of all the conflict in Iraq is by almost all definitions a War. However by the laws defined by the US Constitution, the United States of America is not engaged in war in Iraq. Technically we are involved in a Military Conflict. The Congress of the United States has never officially declared War on Iraq. They only approved Military action against Iraq.

Congress has only declared war five times in it's history.  These five instances were, 1) June 1812, the War of 1812. 2) June 1846, Mexican-American War. 3) April 1898, The Spanish-American War. 4) April 1917, WW I, (Original declaration was against Germany, In December it was approved to include Austria-Hungary) The last time the U.S. Congress officially declared war was December 8, 1941. WWII. Originally War was declared against Japan, however, 3 days later, it was amended andGermany was included in the Declaration and In June of 1942, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania were also included.  

Every other conflict that the United States Military has been involved in were just that, conflicts, not officially declared wars. Throughout U.S. history there have been 125 instances where the President of the United States has acted without the prior approval of Congress. One of these is rarely argued, the Korean War. There have been as many as 234 instances where the US Military has been used overseas in conflict or potential conflict situations.

In 1973 after the Vietnam Conflict, the War Powers Resolution was formed. This resolution limits the number of troops that can be deployed by the President and the length of time they can be deployed without a formal declaration.

That being said, we need to decide if the conflict in Iraq is legal from a US Constitutional standpoint. The answer is one that many do not agree with, yet is written in black and white. Yes, it is a legal conflict. It was approved by the Congress on October 16th, 2002, with a Senate vote of 77 for, 23 against and a House vote of 296 for and 133 against.

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