David Skaggs: “as the country and this body battles to find some clarity in the back and forth between the salacious and the…”

“as the country and this body battles to find some clarity in the back and forth between the salacious and the fallacious, there are actually some significant and important things going on in Washington and in Congress. One of those has to do with the fact that we may be on the verge of launching a NATO attack under United States leadership against the country of Yugoslavia because of the awful, awful conduct of the security forces of Yugoslavia under the direction of President Milosevic in going after innocent civilians in Kosovo. One of the important aspects of this unfolding story and policy has to do with the question of whether, as the United States undertakes this effort, whether we do so in compliance with the requirements of our own Constitution. Article I Section 8 of the Constitution provides very clearly that it is Congress that has the power to make war, whether it is a limited war or a more general war. The power to initiate offensive military action against another country with which we are at least nominally at peace is not a question that resides in the Executive Branch of government but here in the Legislative Branch. Unfortunately, the history of the post World War II era in the United States is a history of the disuse and the disregard of this very important responsibility provided for in the Constitution and assigned to the Congress.”