Dear Editor:

Let us lay aside for a moment the unfolding tragedy of this undeclared war against Iran to examine the meaning of Senator Collins abdication of her duties under the Constitution. To be sure, this recent failure is nothing new, nor unique to Senator Collins. The erosion of the constitutional provision that war be declared by the Congress has a long history.

War is a precarious time in any nation’s history. Everything is at stake and outcomes are always unpredictable. Certainly, we wish to support our troops. As a veteran, I would like to think that the lives of our military family were not put on the line by a presidential whim, but rather with broad political consensus.

James Madison argued that the Executive is "most interested in war, and most prone to it," so the power to initiate war was wisely placed in Congress. The failure to give this new war its proper consideration and debate poses a significant danger to democratic society by undermining core democratic principles. The most fundamental threat is the erosion of democratic consent. When war is initiated without public debate or formal authorization, it bypasses the people’s will.

In failing to act on her duty under the Constitution by voting against the recent war powers resolution, Senator Collins has given the president the carte blanche power to expend our American blood and treasure without regard to need or law. Whatever the outcome of this war, the national debt will pile up along with the bodies. These are the burdens of war that we, the American people will carry long after the war is done. And, thanks to congressional representatives such as Senator Collins, this will have been done without our consent.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay