| Sqrl said: The War Powers Act of '73 allows the president to deploy for 90 days before having to get congressional approval, right? IIRC (its been a while since I've gone over this material) the War Powers Act was in response to Veitnam being waged without congressional approval and was intended to clarify/place limits on the existing (then and now) interpretation of Article II, Section 2 in which most presidents assumed that their position as "Commander in Cheif" afforded them the right to go to war. To be completely honest my take is that the attempt of the War Powers Act to clarify Article II is unconstitutional since, as I understand it, it would take an amendment to add the 90 day limit . By the same token though I don't think that Article II, Section 2 actually grants the president the power to go to war as it is written. I would actually support the 90 limit because it, imo, places a well-reasoned limit on the presidents war powers and accounts for the need to react quickly in some situations. Thus allowing the president freedom without completely bucking checks and balances and ultimately keeping war power in the congress while allowing flexibility as needed. Just my $0.02 on war powers. With that said, the current use of A2S2 will likely not change because it is politically useful for allowing presidents to do what needs to be done with wars without requiring the congress to necessarily put their names on it. |
The president can only commit troops up to 60 days. If the president does not receive congressional authorization after 60 days, the president has a 30 day withdrawal period.
