The Col. Gentile collection and debate

[Ken White]

that it was / is necessary for this effort? Or, more importantly that it could have been done with over 30% of the voters opposed to invading Iraq before the fact? Or would / could have been sustained with over 60% opposed to it at one point?

Slap, one thing you might want to consider about 'declared war' is that we've been in several since the last that had an actual Congressional Declaration of War and that during that war and its concomitant full mobilization a number of laws were passed that gave the Federal Government some truly awesome and draconian powers during a 'state of war' i.e., a declared war IAW the Constitution. Avoidance of triggering those laws is one significant thing has driven Congress to deliberately avoid declaring war since 1945...

I'd further suggest that your theory of declared versus undeclared wars has merit with respect to the intent of the founders but have to question whether a literal interpretation along your lines affords the flexibility needed today. While there is no question that the Armed forces could be restructured to operate within your parameters, I suggest you'd be confronted with an Army that sat stateside and trained along with an Air force that was minimally employed and a Navy an Marine Corps that were overworked.

Obviously, the Navy and Marines could be enlarged and better funded but this would have to be at the expense of the CONUS based Army and AF which would impact their size, equipping and training. Those services would wither. Not a big deal to me but some would get ferociously upset at that -- the more important issue is not the politics, it's the practicality of such an eventuality.

An item to note is that the current system has produced the most combat experienced armed forces in the world today and most other nations Ministers of Defense are well aware of that and don't want to consider a couple of million combat experienced Americans anywhere near their nation. I doubt they'd be that concerned if we were talking about just a few hundred thou Marines and an Army that had been sitting at home training marginally -- and peacetime training is ALL marginal, CTCs or no.

You also have USSOCOM to deal with. Whatcha going to do with them?