http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ivan-eland/excessive-presidential-wa_b_6692044.html

Ivan Eland  Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty, The Independent Institute

Excessive Presidential War Power

Posted: 02/16/2015

Barack Obama, after six months of fighting against the brutal group ISIS, has finally decided to ask for congressional approval of his war. He, like the Bushes before him, maintained that he already had the authority to go to war but only asked for Congress's permission out of courtesy. And despite their often blind hatred of the president, his Republican opponents want to give him even more power than he wants to run his war. The Republican love of unconstitutionally excessive executive power is curious; because of unfavorable national demographic shifts, they have a tough road to winning the presidency back anytime soon. One would think a primarily congressional party, such as theirs, would want to enhance their own power as the expense of the executive--except that Congress rarely wants to take any responsibility for war these days, because of the fear that members might not get re-elected if the conflict goes south. And in Afghanistan, Iraq (the first time), and Libya, things did go south. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ivan-eland/excessive-presidential-wa_b_6692044.html