coupled with a committment to pay for our intervention after a DOW. 

I believe that the failure to require a DOW and the failure of that citizenry to pay for the war it wages through higher taxes ON THEM - and not the next generation - have been the two most destructive failures of our governance in our country during mine and my parent's generation. I believe we are in endless wars, have a military larger than the militaries of the world combined, and have a massive hole in our nation's balance sheet for these very reasons.

Eisenhower is rolling over in his grave.

It was the argument the Nazis made to the Junkers in Germany to enable them to gain power..it was what Stalin enacted to stimulate the economy of the USSR and it is what drove the Cold War. It is now the reason for the war on terrorism.

The problem is.. perpetual militarism leads to perpetual deficit spending and perpetual warfare. Both will eventually tear a nation apart.

The difficulty in getting a full Congressional DOW is the brake to perpetual warfare that our founding fathers envisioned. If we followed the Constitution, then we might have been able to prevent our long term entanglements in all of these wars.

The biggest problem has NOT been the Presidents stepping up the drumbeats to war..that is to be expected..the problem has been Congress failing to do their Constitutional duty to act as the brake to those drumbeats.