Senior Seminar, Part 12 of 12

Introduction

            This is the unedited paper I wrote for my senior seminar back in 2007.  I am posting it as a sort of trip down memory lane during our current apocalypse.

            I have become a better writer since creating this.

            I have become much better informed since writing this.

            I am a very different person than when I wrote this.

Full Introduction Here

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Conclusion

It is my conclusion that War no longer exists as it once did.  War is no longer an action of the state that can be resolved.  War is not declared, War is assumed.  It is also my conclusion that the office of the President has become far too powerful to be trusted at its current levels and there needs to be an effective check implemented in order to stem the tide of assumed powers, and to limit the scope and use of the current assumed powers of the office.

It is my final conclusion that Congressional oversight in the current venue of armed conflict does not rest in the symbolic function of non-binding resolutions, it instead relies entirely within the capacity of the Congress to withhold money from the process of military exercise and to communicate that intention in a timely enough fashion that it will be considered a reasonable response when the Congress initiates it.  I am effectively asking the United States Congress to use foresight and reason to approach a major responsibility that they have ham fisted in the past.

Moral imperatives being directed at the President through non-binding resolutions are ineffective, and historically have not been used to any effect.  The Congress’ ability to function in concert with the President is limited by the ability of the President to completely control the nature of the encounter through his assumed powers and this being the status quo must be ended in the near future with expediency.

Viet Nam was the defining conflict of the last fifty years and the modern Congress shrinks back from the imperative that conflict granted them to seek control of military affairs in a substantive fashion now, this is a mistake.  And if this mistake remains uncorrected it will mean the gradual decay of the United States Congress as a governing body, and the exaltation of the President as the sole driving force for American interests in the world.

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