Letter: Congress has power to withdraw troops

Friday, March 9, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

The Las Vegas Sun's March 3 editorial, "War and power," was very interesting in that the editorial's author neglected to mention the fact that - according to Michael Nelson, the author of "The Presidency A to Z" - the "framers of the Constitution distrusted both executive and military power and believed the potential for tyranny was great when the two were combined."

The War Powers Act of 1973 was passed over President Richard Nixon's veto by a vote of 284 to 135 in the House and 75 to 18 in the Senate. Could it be that our elected representatives realized something important 34 years ago that our do-nothing Congress of today will not even read - let alone consider?

The total mess in Iraq was never a "declared war." The editorial's author got it right in writing that "No formal declaration of war has been made since World War II." What tyranny our constitutional framers presaged and so feared.

What is desperately needed today is not another "commission" to form yet another debating society. All we must have immediately is a vote in both houses of Congress to enforce one of the most important provisions of the War Powers Act, i.e., "Congress is permitted at any time by a majority vote in both houses to order the president to disengage troops involved in an undeclared war, and require the president to withdraw armed forces from a conflict within 60 days ... 90 days if the president certifies that further military action is necessary to disengage U.S. military personnel from a conflict safely."

Come on, members of Congress. Do the job you were elected to do. Save America! Order a 60-day withdrawal! Do it tomorrow!

Carrie Steele, Las Vegas