The United States in no way has been attacked, and therefore there is no true “defense” on our part. Nor do we even have allies attacked, which is already beyond the specific issues addressed by Madison, Hamilton, etc. But just this far is enough to show the one basic principle: the power to make war—and you don’t even have to call it a “police action” or “limited military action,” you can just call it “war”—is not exclusively and solely vested in Congress. It is, in fact, sometimes, an Executive power, apart from Congress, and that is constitutional.

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