Thursday, February 16, 2006

Declaration of War-Like Activities

I did not know this:

Seems that after World War II, Congress wrote into law a lot of the wartime measures used during World War II. These included price controls, censorship and greater police powers. This was done with the possibility of nuclear war in mind, where there would be massive damage done to the U.S. in a short period of time. To deal with this, a lot of these regulations would kick in the minute Congress votes to declare war. No one wants to be the first to suggest repealing these laws and regulations, and no one wants to see them go into action. So whenever anyone in Congress starts talking about declaring war, they are pulled aside by some senior staffers and filled in on the consequences.


In the past, I called for a good old declaration of war against Saddam's Iraq complete with calling in their ambassador to receive a gentle State Department slap across the cheek with a white glove.

I stand corrected.

As Instapundit is prone to saying, I blame Ashcroft.