http://www.centermovement.org/topics-issues/terrorism/mr-cheneys-war/ Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:48:11 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://www.centermovement.org/topics-issues/terrorism/mr-cheneys-war/comment-page-1/#comment-77 alnelson Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:06:12 +0000 http://centermovement.org/?p=745#comment-77 Whenever I start my lesson on World War I at the college level, one of the first questions I ask is "Who has the power to declare war?" Sadly, of the approximately 150 students I've had so far in the past two years, all of them have answered, "the President". We can debate what is and what is not a war, but with the cutting of civics, and now history facing the knife across the nation, if my classes are a sampling of what is to come, generations of students will have no concept of what the Constitution states, or who has what powers. It is one thing to talk about war, but what is next? Will future generations of American citizens, ignorant of the language of the Constitution, be swayed into thinking that the President can arbitrarily create laws without the approval of Congress? It seems absurd to us, but then the World War I generation would have thought it absurd that the President would have the power to commit troops to any battle without the approval of Congress. Whenever I start my lesson on World War I at the college level, one of the first questions I ask is “Who has the power to declare war?” Sadly, of the approximately 150 students I’ve had so far in the past two years, all of them have answered, “the President”. We can debate what is and what is not a war, but with the cutting of civics, and now history facing the knife across the nation, if my classes are a sampling of what is to come, generations of students will have no concept of what the Constitution states, or who has what powers. It is one thing to talk about war, but what is next? Will future generations of American citizens, ignorant of the language of the Constitution, be swayed into thinking that the President can arbitrarily create laws without the approval of Congress? It seems absurd to us, but then the World War I generation would have thought it absurd that the President would have the power to commit troops to any battle without the approval of Congress.

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