RISCH: On non-declared wars

Senator Jim Risch, appropriately, took the opportunity this Veterans Day (The Press, Nov. 11) to honor our vets. Incidentally, in the same space, he detailed for us all that he’s done for them. Credit where credit’s due; thank you, Senator Risch.

But the senator, in rather casually mentioning “non-declared wars,” might have added a footnote to that. Non-declared wars, after all, should be flat out impossible. The Constitution and a bipartisan act passed in 1973 place the responsibility of declaring war squarely on Congress. Acting alone, no president should be empowered to take us to war. Why? Because a few presidents have taken us there fairly recently and there have been consequences and casualties for all of us to see. Plainly, if we look.

Senator Risch might have a suggestion on how to best “honor” the victims of an unjust war, if any such war were ever to happen, of course.

DEL CAMERON

Coeur d’Alene