Actually, this bit brings me to another point about the conservatives.
I stated that the USA acts as a thug when it comes to foreign policy. And before that, I said that conservatives who support such course of action are themselves thugs.
Rather that agreeing or disputing it, you are trying to call me a thug because I support abortion.
Let's assume that you succeed. But does that invalidate the fact that bullying other countries into submission is thuggish?
Really, where is the logic?
This (and variations) I see all the time when talking to conservatives. I don't hear much of the same from the liberals, although I don't dispute they do it too.
But can you explain how does painting me as a thug when it comes to abortions actually rebuttals my original statement?
Should it be considered as "yeah, we are assholes, but so are you"?
If so, then why don't you just come out and say it?
Or do you prefer to maintain the status quo when it comes to your own "thuggery" while picking on mine? (or inventing one in some instances)
This has nothing to do with conservatives vs. liberals but authoritarians vs. libertarians. And all but maybe 2 or 3 people in office are authoritarians, with Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, etc. being most heavily so. It's mainly because they're idiots who support the most simple (and foolish) ideas. It's also because our people are lazy and uninformed.
The more reasonable and actual law of the U.S., the Constitution, requires that war be declared by Congress. Madison explained it perfectly in Federalist Paper 41. He said that we should not even have a standing army. If we have one, we'll use it to attack someone just because it's there, and eventually our own army will conquer our own people. To avoid this, they separated the war powers into two branches. Congress must declare war before the President is allowed to become Commander-in-Chief. If the President could do both, he would have ultimate power, just like any king.
Madison was correct. In World War II we created a powerful military, and then we gave the President thereafter the ability to declare war via emergency powers and also prosecute war via his existing legal authority. The founders have also mentioned that when any single power comes under the control of one branch, tyranny has already been achieved.
So what's Obama doing with his tyrannical powers? More than Bush. He's spending more of our money on war, and apparently using the CIA and drones to fight a war in Pakistan, too, which not only violates U.S. law but international law too. Compared to Obama, Bush was a pretty nice guy.
As for Congress, neither Democratic nor Republicans representatives really care about the war. It's not up to them any more. They don't even want to get involved. Some pay it lip service if a majority of the people in their state seem either pro- or anti-war.
Now let's get to your question about bullying. If Congress did want to declare war, they could for ANY reason. It could be anything that's in the U.S.'s best interests, in theory. In practice, it just doesn't happen because war is too expensive. It always costs more than we get back, and the people know it. Plus nobody wants to fight and die for no good reason. They know it's too expensive, and the people will not re-elect them, unless the war really is an emergency situation that threatens our way of life. None of them since WW2 has.