Who's got the power?

Some people think presidents can make love, but not war. Only Congress can make war, they argue. And, constitutionally, they're right. But it ain't that simple. In a smart piece, Dave Weigel writes: "Historians can point to the arguments that James Madison made about war powers, or the uses Thomas Jefferson made of those powers in the presidency, and come to at least two conclusions. One: The founders saw a proper role for unilateral executive military decisions in some limited cases, and presidents don't always need to get declarations of war. (There hasn't been an official declaration of war in the United States since 1941.) Two: The founders may have said that, but until the Cold War era, Congress did take a role in these interventions, and presidents deferred." Follow this link for a thinking man's guide to presidential war powers. It's a good read by Harvard Professor Thomas E. Woods that skips the pervasive hype and guesswork.