Comments on Tom Roeser: Personal Aside: If We Regain the Presidency in 201...

America's first "undeclared war" was...

2010-02-01T21:30:36.604-06:00

America's first "undeclared war" was in 1798 against France.

There was no declaration of war against the Barbary Pirate states.

Polk sent U.S. troops into the disputed part of Texas without Congressional approval, which led to combat.

Navy and Marine forces fought in China, Japan, and Korea in the 1850s-70s with no declaration of war.

U.S. troops served in the Peking Expedition of 1900 with no declaration of war.

U.S. forces intervened in Nicaragua in 1912 and stayed there for twenty years with no declaration of war.

The formal declaration of war is a mechanism of the "Westphalian" system of relations between nation-states. It doesn't work in a context of non-state actors and deniable terrorism.

Military actions without a declaration of war actu...

2010-02-01T03:53:43.889-06:00

Military actions without a declaration of war actually go all the way back to the founding generation, beginning with our nation's first collision with Islamic terrorists in the Barbary Wars, which began under President Thomas Jefferson.

A more comprehensive list of the numerous undeclared wars in which we engaged throughout our history, can be found in Max Boot's fine book, "The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power".

The reason we haven't declared war since 1941 ...

2010-01-27T18:14:11.076-06:00

The reason we haven't declared war since 1941 is because of our treaty arrangements. With NATO, SEATO, CENTO, etc. all would require member nations to declare war on a country if we did. The U.S. does not want that complication -- nor do the other signatories.