Allegany County resident questions Congressional power to declare war
By Nathaniel Martin, Centerville NY
In December, worried that Congress was thoughtlessly giving up its constitutional responsibility to declare war, I wrote to Nick Langworthy, my representative in Congress, asking him to vote for a War Powers Resolution. He responded by suggesting that I must support Tren de Aragua. Angered, I wrote the Wellsville Sun. He responded again, this time stating that he fully supports President Trump’s mission to hold Maduro responsible for his drug crimes. I replied that I appreciated his response and asked him to support a War Powers Resolution against war with Denmark over Greenland. His office responded that they did not monitor replies. I gave up.
Now, we have spend more that 12 billion dollars in a war in Iran and the Department of War is requesting 200 billion more. This time there was no War Powers Resolution because the war started without warning. Maybe because the administration got what it wanted in Venezuela.
Because wars are expensive and uncertain, the Constitution gives the power to declare war to Congress. Congress is slow and debates everything to death, but that is why the founding fathers gave it that power.
The decision to start a war needs to be slow and deliberate. We are now committed to an uncertain future at the whim of one man.
I, for one, do not feel safer.
