Congress alone may authorize war

The Constitution assigns the power to declare war to Congress — Article I, Section 8 — and that assignment was not accidental. The Convention placed it there precisely because the executive, by its very nature, possesses both the capacity and the temptation to act first and seek ratification later. I argued in the Federalist that the accumulation of powers in a single branch is the very definition of tyranny; offensive strikes against a sovereign nation's military forces are not defensive reprisals but acts of war in every meaningful sense, regardless of what we choose to call them. The Strait of Hormuz may be vital, the provocation real, and the strategic calculation sound — those are arguments to make before Congress, not substitutes for its authority. A republic that permits its executive to commence hostilities on his own judgment, then dares the legislature to cut off funds mid-conflict, has transferred the war power by erosion rather than amendment, and that transfer, however convenient, is unconstitutional.

Executive must act swiftly to protect commerce

The Strait of Hormuz is not merely a lane of water — it is the throat through which a significant share of the world's oil supply passes, and strangling it strikes at the commercial vitality of every trading nation, the United States included. I have always held that the executive possesses inherent authority to repel sudden attacks and protect American commerce on the high seas; the navy and the treasury are, in this sense, partners. When Iranian forces attack Gulf tankers and threaten a blockade that would convulse global markets overnight, waiting for deliberate congressional processes while ships burn is not constitutional fidelity — it is strategic paralysis. The commerce power, broadly read, and the executive's duty to protect American interests abroad justify swift, targeted action. That said — and I insist on this — swift action is not unlimited action. Congress must be consulted, funds must be appropriated, and the scope must remain bounded. Vigor without accountability is not an executive; it is a monarch.

Entangling conflicts betray republican liberty

The Constitution vests the power to declare war in Congress — not as a formality, not as a courtesy to be observed when convenient, but as the foundational check by which a republic ensures that its blood and treasure are not spent at the pleasure of a single officer. Whatever provocation Iran may have given, whatever genuine peril attends the Strait of Hormuz, the executive who strikes first and asks Congress afterward has already answered the constitutional question in the wrong direction. I worried in my own time that standing armies and executive prerogative would, by slow degrees, devour the liberties they claimed to defend; I see nothing in this account to revise that worry. Entanglement in distant conflicts, undertaken without deliberation and without lawful authority, does not defend the republic — it enlarges the very concentration of power that republican government exists to prevent. Congress must reclaim its Article I authority, or confess that it has surrendered it.