Please indicate if you agree or disagree with the following statement:
Since the nation's earliest years, presidents have used the military on their own prerogative in order to use force unilaterally and obtain congressional support after the fact.
Periods of war are a threat to democracy and serve as the stepping stone to tyranny. Presidents, when expanding their war powers, usurp the powers of the legislative and judicial branches.
Hints: Review the authority the Constitution gives to the Executive and to Congress in periods of war. Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution reads: "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States."
That provision gives the president a title, commander in chief, but no specific list of powers that can be exercised in that capacity.
It also suggests that the president is not "Commander in Chief" all of the time but only "when called into the actual Service of the United States."