In other words, it's no use saying that we are at war with a certain set of nations if the people trying to kill us are scattered all over the world. Better admit to the fact that our enemy is more amorphous. What is our alternative? To refuse to acknowledge this and defend ourselves?
So, we are at war with those who are at war with us. Obviously. .
The only fact of our enemy being amorphous is that of the foolishness of refusing to clearly identifying them. I will then ask my question in reverse. Who, exactly, is at war with us?
As I’ve said, the President does have the Constitutional power to repel sudden attacks or command military forces in the defense against hostilities made directly against the United States, but without a degree from Congress he cannot put us in a state of war. Bin Laden is dead, but the wars rage on as we look for new enemies to feed the military industrial complex.
Defense against those who might attack us is entirely different than the preemptive imperialist policies which have led to perpetual undeclared wars, as you seem to think it’s acceptable to chase nomads and bandits to the ends of the earth without regard for the sovereignty of all those nations which I pointed out. There is a serious folly in the position you choose, and history supports that opinion at every turn.
“The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belong to one category” – “Terrorism is the best political weapon, for nothing drives people harder than the fear of sudden death” – Adolf Hitler
And lo and behold, you support endless wars against an amorphous enemy; the nameless, faceless, shadow boogeyman “terrorist”.
You support unbridled executive power to wage war on this undefined enemy, while arbitrarily disregarding the separation of powers delegated by the Constitution.
Not even the founders would agree with you.
“The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.” – James Madison
“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.” – James Madison
“In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate… …an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.” – James Madison
“America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....” – John Quincy Adams