Friday, April 06, 2007

Wartime Presidency

A lot of the news media keeps referring to the Iraq war, or to the "wartime president". This really bothers me. We're not at war in Iraq. Only congress can declare war. We're in Iraq bombing the crap out of some civilians who are fighting back. They're doing a remarkably effective job, which makes me wonder why no one thought they would.

An old college roommate majoring in political science once told me that the reason the US would never be taken over by a foreign government is because of the second ammendment. He said that an armed populace would fight any invaders if the military lost the battle for some reason. The foreign troops would be subject to attack at every small town, at every gas station, at every house they entered. We'd call it patriotic, this guerilla defense of the country. The invading government would call it rebel insurgency.

Amazing what a bit of perspective can do, isn't it?

No comments: