Iraq War: US Congress’s Powers Beyond the Purse

Today’s Op-Ed Page in The New York Times states that ‘the sound-bite arguments’ are hijacking the debate that the United State’s Congress needs to have about the Iraq war.

“Defenders of President Bush concede that Congress has ‘the power of the purse’ and insist it could use it to completely ‘cut off the funds to the troops.’ But that, most of them say, is the only power Congress has to change the course of the war.

“They then insinuate that exercising this power would be an unspeakable act of disloyalty to our soldiers, leaving them without supplies, ammunition or pay. Congress is thus placed in a box: it has a single awesome power that it would never employ.

“There are at least three errors in this line of argument. First, Congress is hardly limited to this seemingly magical power of the purse. It has several sources of constitutional authority over the use of military force, including the express right ‘to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.’

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