Constitution of the United States
Article 1
Section 8
Paragraph 11: The Congress Shall have the power to declare War, grant letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.
NB: Letters of Marque and Reprisal are legal documents allowing private citizens, e.g. captains of sailing vessels, to seize ships belonging to another nation, i.e. to make privateers legal, the forerunners of "contractors."
Stephen Decatur & Barbary Pirates
Congress declared war for the first time in 1812, voting to approve President Madison's request for war against Britain, which had been kidnapping American sailors and pressing them into service on British war ships, and which had been fomenting Indian wars against the United States along its western borders.
Only on four other occasions has Congress declared war:
1. War against Mexico 1846 (Mexican-American War)
2. Spanish-American War 1896
3. World War 1
4. World War 2
No Congressional approval was enacted for the War in Vietnam.
Neither did it vote a declaration of war against Iraq or Afghanistan, but in these two cases it voted an "Authorization for Use of Military Force."
The Iraqi war authorization happened after a year long campaign by President Bush and his Secretary of State falsely accused Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of marshalling "weapons of mass destruction" in preparation for an attack against someone, presumably someone the United States wished to protect. No such weapons were ever found nor likely ever existed.
The Spanish American war was launched by a newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, for unclear reasons, although it clearly sold newspapers. An American warship, the Maine, had blown up in Havana harbor, likely owing to a boiler explosion, but Hearst claimed the Spanish Empire had bombed the ship. Famously, an American reporter in Havana had told Hearst he could see no reason for war, but Hearst told him all he wanted was photographs of the aftermath of the explosion: "You give me the pictures; I'll give you the war!"
You Give Me the Pictures; I'll give you the War
The Mexican-American war was even worse: the United States was swept by notions of "Manifest Destiny" which meant the entire continent should belong to the United States, and that meant California and New Mexico and everything down to the Rio Grande. Texas, meanwhile had Americans who wanted to be separate from Mexico and they wanted to establish slavery, which was illegal in Mexico. The rest is all Alamo and myth and Davey Crockett and might makes right.
Manly Hero
Thomas Jefferson, who did not at all like the idea of a standing army or an American Navy, finally realized if his young country wanted to be able to trade with the world, he needed to protect his trading ships, which the Barbary pirate nations of the North African and Mediterranean coasts simply confiscated, demanding "tribute" (ransom.)
It would be cheaper and more efficient to simply send an American navy to attack these pirate states, and Jefferson did that, without a declaration of war. Meet force with force. Commerce demanded it.
U.S. Soldiers Spanish American War
Then the world changed, and the American military became the De facto policeman of the world, and America became the prime target of every fundamentalist wacko group. President Obama looked at this new world and realized there was no practical way to get an authorization of war out of Congress every time he wanted to kill some kingpin of every homicidal group or rogue head of state.
U.S. Soldiers Manila Manifest Destiny
So, Obama joined a NATO raid on Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, 2011, and he launched a drone against Anwar al-Walaki (Yemen, 2011) and he launched a raid against Osma bin Laden (Pakistan 2011) who most people assumed was behind the 2001 World Trade Center attacks--and if he wasn't the trigger man, he surely did celebrate those attacks and call for more. Then Obama got Mullah Mansour, leader of the Afghan Taliban, in Pakistan in 2016 with a drone attack. Hakimullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban got drone struck in 2013.
Obama, a constitutional scholar, argued that executions like these did not require a trial or Due Process or a declaration of war because these were non state actors (except for Gaddafi, whose "state" was dubious.)
None of these guys engaged in actual "war" wearing uniforms, operating by the Geneva convention rules of war, taking prisoners and providing for Red Cross visits.
The ACLU actually challenged this practice in Court but got nowhere.
President Obama's drone strikes and especially his operation to kill Osma Bin Laden were notable for their surgical precision, and "collateral damage," i.e. deaths of civilians not targeted but in proximity to the attack were limited. Nevertheless, there were 540 drone strikes over the 8 years of his presidency.
So, now we have Mr. Trump bombing Iranians for reasons which are opaque, and keep shifting: Iran was a week away from an atom bomb after we obliterated their nuclear program; no, wait, Iran was threatening to assassinate Mr. Trump; no, that's not it; Iran was killing its own citizens; no, wait, it was going after Israel; no, wait, Iran is still a threat to world peace.
"They weren't very nice to me," seems to be Trump's main thing.
As Paul Krugman has noted, sending in the fleet with aircraft carriers, missiles, drones, airplanes is costing $1 billion a day, money which Ukraine could surely have used to great effect, not to mention medical insurance programs, food for the poor, American homeless, infrastructure repair.
History helps us understand: This one ranks right around the Mexican-American war, except we get no land from it, and the Spanish-American war, but we get no naval bases or a nearby island to abuse.
The difference in Trump's attacks on Iran and Obama's targeted drone strikes seems to be one of precision and clarity.
Obama said we have to fashion our use of force to the enemy we face--in his case shadowy strongmen who target innocents at markets or office buildings or embassies and then slip away, often without explanation--"You figure it out," seemed to be the terrorists' modus operandi--and so we respond with stealthy, targeted surgical strikes and let the Taliban, ISIS, Hamas or Hezbollah figure out what they did wrong.
In Trump's case, he kills the Ayatollah and some of his friends, and announces it's time for the Iranians to rise up and change the regime, as if that is going to happen automatically.
After the Atyatollah's boys killed somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 protestors, few in the West will mourn his passing. And if Trump had said, "Well, this is what I do to people who offend me," and left town, then maybe we'd all shrug, the way we did with Maduro. Neither one of these gems garners much sympathy.
Trump, it is well known, is a great defender of protestors--just ask Renee Good or Alex Pretti.
But Trump's "move fast and break things" method only works occasionally. Just ask Elon Musk.
And wars are usually easier to get into than to get out of.
