Cowardice among the powerful

In today's Financial Times is an excellent opinion piece by Jacob Weisberg, an FT columnist and the editor of Slate.com. Weisberg points out that the constitution of the United States of America very specifically grants the legislative branch sole authority to declare war and the power to create, fund, and regulate the armed forces. The 1973 war powers resolution, Weisberg reminds us, "creates a 60-day period after the onset of hostilities for presidents either to get congressional approval or withdraw troops." Plus, "a provision of the war powers resolution states specifically that the president must remove forces when Congress so orders." This provision was invoked again and again by Republican Congresses under Clinton. So enough with the whining, Democratic senators, the time has come to stop this war.