Originally posted by Pongo
A strange place for the land of the free to be in.
Not really. First of all, unpopular wars aren't uncommon. Korea was never popular, and Eisenhower ran almost exclusively on the promise of getting out of Korea ASAP. Vietnam started with popular support which diminished slowly over time. Domestically, there
is support for military action against Iraq, albeit waning, so I'm not sure what you mean by unpopular. Do you mean internationally? If so, America's surely been involved in
plenty of internationally unpopular wars through throughout the 19th century.
I'm curious how you'd classify the Mexican-American War or the Spanish-American War on your aggressiveness measure. Remember the Alamo! Remember the Maine! Hell, Old Hickory Jackson wanted to attack both Mexico
and England in Oregon to faciliate western expansion, but the thought of a two front war dissuaded him.
To go back to your original question of constitutionality: There is nothing unconstitutional about what Bush has done at this point. The constitution does not attribute motive to war but rather places obstacles in the path of its easy pursuit. Bush has obtained the constitutionally-required approval for military force by Congress regardless of his motives, so constitutionally speaking he is fine. Statute requires periodic review of the war effort by Congress, which may as it sees fit remove this mandate for military action.
-- Todd/Leviathn