Joe Lancaster published a piece at Reason documenting the Trump administration’s handling of the War Powers Resolution’s sixty-day clock on the Iran strikes, and it is worth reading for the facts even though the analysis points in exactly the wrong direction.
A companion essay to this one argued that the War Powers Resolution deserves repeal on constitutional grounds. That argument identified three directions the Republic might take after repeal: restore the constitutional architecture to align military posture with the original allocation of war powers, amend the Constitution to accommodate the standing military the nation has built, or accept the ambiguity and let each crisis resolve itself through political contest. The essay took no position on which direction to pursue, but this one does, because the question of what comes after repeal matters more than the repeal itself.
The United States has not declared war since June 5, 1942. In the eighty-four years since, American forces have fought in Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and dozens of smaller engagements. Presidents of both parties ordered every one of these operations. Congress authorized some, funded most, and stopped none.