from Congress. Indeed, the White House implied, right to the very end, that it had the legal right to commit U.S. troops to battle without authority from Congress.4
Yet, ironically, the Bush Administration did ultimately seek authority from Congress, and that authority was granted on January 12, 1991. In seeking that authority, even if he did not believe he really needed it even if he would have gone to war in any case without it President Bush profoundly changed the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches with respect to the war power. Against the precedents of Vietnam and Korea, there is now a new precedent implying that Congress must authorize the march to war.
Decades from now, this single Bush decision [to
seek congressional approval], which triggered the
landmark congressional vote of January 12, may be as
important as his order, four days later, to attack
The Constitution is in fact profoundly ambiguous as to where the President's
...