Abe Lincoln, as representative from Illinois, wrote a letter to William H. Herndon, his partner in law and future biographer, that went:

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose. If, today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us' but he will say to you 'Be silent; I see it if you don't.'

"'The provision of the Constitution giving war-making to Congress was dedicated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good people was the object. This, our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to frame the Constitution that no man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood."

Anyway, suppose there comes to pass, as was with the kings of yore, a vested interest in war?

In light of the dangers we face, and the reckless exploitation of them for political and financial gain, history will be telling, someday, just who the real scoundrel is.

Tim O'Leary