The answer as to whether the president has unilateral war powers is no. Numerous scholarly and academic articles have been written in order to describe what the constitution contains in a simpler language. This essay gives a summary of two of such articles.
Article 1: What War Powers Does the President Have?
The article simply summarizes the prerogative of the congress to declare war. Article 8 section 1 of the US constitution contains information regarding the institutions with the power to declare war. This section indicates that the sole power to declare war in the US rests with the congress. For that reason the president cannot declare war except with due permission from the congress. Although the president is the commander in chief from the armed forces and has the mandate from the paper to act on their behalf in accordance to article 2 sections 2 he is only allowed to move troops to wherever he may wish. The consistency of the constitution with regard to this matter is also clear in the war act which requires the president to obtain an approval fro congress within 90 days of moving troops to a hostile ground.
Article 2: Only Congress Can Declare War from Aba-journal
This article is about John Yoo’s declaration regarding the famers in Britain who had rejected an exclusively royal prerogative form of governance. John’s article mentions his findings from the US constitution. He reveals that the powers to declare war are not solely vested on the president. The article explains that although the president has a role in commanding war and moving troops it is the duty of the congress to declare war.
References
Abajournal (2012)http Congress Can Declare War retrieved from http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/only_congress_can_declare_war on 7th April 2013
Slate magazine (2012)What War Powers Does the President Have retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2001/09/what_war_powers_does_the_president_have.html on 7th April 2013
