President's Military Powers!!?

Question

What do you think are some reasons why the President was given almost unlimited military powers? What are some possible positive and negative effects resulting from the scope of President's military power?

Thank you!

Answer 1

The bad thing is that a President could drag the US into a war that the public or Congress never agreed on; like Vietnam. The President can't declare war, that power is reserved for Congress, but the President can authorize a military intervention; after Vietnam Congress curbed this power to a limit of 90 days. After that time the US forces have to be either pulled out of combat or Congress must declare war. Congress did declare war on Iraq and when they did so they didn't include any provisions for and end to the war. Another words Congress authorized the war to continue until and all out and total victory.

The chances of a rogue President declaring war on an ally and remaining in office are pretty slim. The military just won't go for it unless they have some solid proof. The Iraqi War debacle will make sure that in the future the military will want more proof before committing to a war or "police action."

The good thing about giving the President the ability to control the military are several and are all used to fill a situation that needs a quick response.

For example the President can nationalize the National Guard to respond to emergencies. Bush was ready to do that for New Orleans, but he needed New Orleans or Louisiana to request their areas be designated as Disaster Areas. After Hurricane Katrina New Orleans waited too long to make this declaration so help was slow in getting there. FEMA didn’t help matters, but the National Guard was ready to go in quickly if they were only given permission to do so.

When an ally is attacked or our foreign interests are at stake and military action is needed there is no need to wait on a vote from Congress, who might even be in recess. The President can order immediate action. This covers things from full scale nuclear retaliation to rescuing members of an embassy. Such actions take place too quickly for a group to decide when and where to intervene.

President Eisenhower proved that micromanagement of our troops in action is not the way to run a war. He once bragged that not a single bomb was dropped on Vietnam without his knowing abut it. The problem is that by the time he received the intelligence and acted on it the situation could have changed. Also he didn’t take in account military considerations; like tactics. So many of our planes were shot down over Vietnam because they kept coming into North Vietnam on the same course; the North Vietnamese could concentrate their air defense systems on that corridor and be more effective. Also political problems got in the way of military decisions. A Surface to Air Missile (SAM) is useless without the radar to find it. Bombing those radars was the first action taken by the US for the Iraqi Invasions. This allowed the strike aircraft to come in and make tactical strikes. In Vietnam the risk of killing a Russian citizen who was manning that radar was deemed too high so those radars couldn’t be attacked. President Eisenhower thought that if one Russian Citizen was killed by American action that could be enough of an excuse for Russia and China to enter the war.

You can say a lot of bad things about President Bush’s policies, but one good thing is that he doesn’t micromanage the war in Iraq. He selects the best generals he can and he has them do the job as they were trained to. This means that they can run the war properly and without having someone breathing down their necks. Of course it as puts the blame for the war on those same commanders, but that is part of the risk of command.

Giving the President the powers of Commander in Chief allows him or her to respond quickly to a military need or emergency. Limiting the power to declare war to Congress prevents the President from dragging us into a war that no one wants to fight. At least that is the theory, Congress had to tweak the law limiting the President to 90 days action, but Bush still got us into a war the majority of Americans never wanted to be in. I think it is pretty universal feeling that if Iran wasn’t involved in the attacks on 9/11/2001 then they should not have been attacked. Intelligence received under torture, and not verified was used to tie Iraq to 9/11/2001 and Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s right hand man, wrote Collin Powel’s speech to the UN where that connection was first made public. Based on that speech Congress declared war. I think that Collin Powel left the Bush Administration because he felt that he was used by Dick Cheney to start Dick Cheney’s War.

Answer 2

Military Powers Of The President

Answer 3

the US constitution has a whole series of checks and balances on the 3 parts of the federal government (executive, legislative and judicial), so that no part gets too much power.

the President is the commander in chief of the armed forces, because ultimately there does need to be 1 person giving orders.
but technically, only Congress can declare war. So the president does not have unlimited military power, he can't start a war by himself.

of course in real life it doesn't always work. in this current war, congress totally abdicated their powers, never voted for war, but didn't do anything to stop him either. if congress wimps out, or the president exercises too much power, both of which are happening now, the checks and balances will collapse.

Answer 4

The President has broad constitutional power to take military action in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Congress has acknowledged this inherent executive power in both the War Powers Resolution and the Joint Resolution passed by Congress on September 14, 2001.

The President has constitutional power not only to retaliate against any person, organization, or State suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks on the United States, but also against foreign States suspected of harboring or supporting such organizations.

The President may deploy military force preemptively against terrorist organizations or the States that harbor or support them, whether or not they can be linked to the specific terrorist incidents of September 11.

MUCH more at URL ...

Answer 5

are you doing a term paper?

"The War Powers Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-148) limits the power of the President of the United States to wage war without the approval of Congress."

see: The War Powers Act. (Public Law 93-148, 93rd Congress, H. J. Res. 542, November 7, 1973)

Answer 6

Because nobody was going to stop him.

Because people's knee jerk reaction to 9/11 was to look for the Strongman Leader to save them through violence and to give him all the power that he wanted.

Because Congress wasn't doing it's job of checking and balancing when the Republicans were in charge, and it's still not doing it's job with the Democrats in charge.

Positive effects:
Things can get done quickly with less people making the decisions.

Negative effects:
Stupid, half-witted things can get done quickly with less people (with a brain) making the decisions.

Answer 7

it's not even almost unlimited, it is a very carefully limited time window, however as soon as congress declares war he has everything he needs. Almost all dictators have started off from a soverign nation giving them Emergency powers

Answer 8

Well he is the Commander In Chief of all the Armed Forces, and as President Bush has demonstrated, he is a very wise one.

Answer 9

I think that george Bush is not doing good with the military power because we dont need troops in iraq why are we even messing with them. Why do you think everything is going so high