On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Sun, Sep 30, 2001 at 04:11:21PM -0400, James B. DiGriz wrote:
What I find interesting is how we can have a war without a Congressional declaration, which out of practical if not legal necessity requires something at least approximating a foreign power as the enemy. It would be extremely helpful if there were some overt state action or at least a smoking gun to publicly identify such party.
Call me unusually hawkish, but I don't see why that's necessary. Let's say our fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor 60 years ago -- but by an enemy who did not paint his flag on his aircraft. Congress could, and should, declare war on an unidentified enemy.
I admit the situation is not as clear here, since generally only nationstates can raise air armadas and non-nationstate organizations could have trained the Hijacking 19, but perhaps the parallels are nevertheless sufficient. Think of it as an "unidentified co-conspirator" approach.
Better parallels: the Barbary pirates, against which the US sent a fleet in the early 1800s, or the US Army's incursion into Mexico under Gen Pershing in the early 1900s. You can dispatch troops without a nation-state as the target. -- Jim Dixon VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net tel +44 117 929 1316 fax +44 117 927 2015