David C. Unger Quotes

The way I read the Constitution,. the Congress is paid a salary to determine whether we should go to war ... Therefore, I don't think Congress is earning its money.

The Congress decides when to make war and the President decides how to make war.

The power to make war is vested in Congress and not in the President. Congress has no constitutional authority to grant such authority to the president.

Under our Constitution the Congress alone has the power to declare war.

The Declaration of War function is corrupted if the President is the only source of information about the issue…

There is going to be no involvement of America in war unless it is the result of the Constitutional process that is placed upon Congress to declare it.

Since the enactment of the War Powers Act in 1973, which I supported then and support now, Congress has been reluctant to assert its authority when presidents decide to send American soldiers into harm's way.

Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper and safe judges of whether a war ought to be commenced, continued or concluded.

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion … and you allow him to make war at pleasure. … If today he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may see no probability he would say to you, “Be silent!, I see if you don’t.”

President’s don’t have the authority to go to war.

We in America should see that no man is ever given, no matter how gradually or how noble and excellent the man, the power to put this country into a war

I don’t think we should go to war with one person’s authority..

We must not allow any president to unleash the dogs of war at his own discretion and for an unlimited period of time.

Since the 1st World War, U. S. Presidents have 18 times asked the Congress for authority to go to war or use military force. The Presidents have never been turned down by Congress.

It is easier to begin a war than to end one, which is why the decision to start a conflict should not be entrusted to the person who wages it. Post‐war presidents have abandoned this wisdom.

No president can easily commit our sons and daughters to war.

The War Powers Act requires presidents to seek the consent of the American people, through their representatives, before sending our troops into war. It is the responsibility of Congress to deliberate and consult with the executive branch before involving ourselves in a military conflict.

I thought that the administration needed bipartisan support, and I was for our commander-in-chief. Because I felt at that time it was the right thing do. If I knew then what I know now, I would have never voted for the war.

You could argue that war is always an irrational act, and yet many states enter into military conflict out of rational calculation or national interest or the stability or longevity of their regime.

There are two things that will always be difficult for a democratic people to do: to start a war and to finish it

The respective powers of the President and Congress of the United States, in the case of war with foreign powers are yet undetermined. Perhaps they can never be defined.

Why are American boys dying in a war the President refuses to call a war, yet commits our forces to it?

It is only while the public mind is held in suspense—It is only while there is doubt as to what will be the result of deliberations—it is only while we linger in this hall that any manifestations of uneasiness will show themselves. Whenever war is declared, the people will put forth their rights.

As the Executive cannot decide the question of war on the affirmative side, neither ought it do so on the negative side by preventing the competent body [Congress] from deliberating on the question.

We don't declare war any more, we declare national defense.