I thought congress had to make a formal "declaration of war", so how could it be classified?
Perhaps I live in this fantasy land where little things like the law and constitution are ignored by those in power.
Perhaps I live in this fantasy land where little things like the law and constitution are ignored by those in power.
Basically, the Congress had ceded it's ability to approve/disapprove warlike action to the executive. They retain the power of the purse, but it is difficult to be in a position politically where you are "cutting off support" for "the troops".
That's also a key reason why we had the "support the troops" propaganda. Even if you were against the war, how can you be against your neighbor's sons and daughters?
This isn't exactly true. Congressmen have an explicit Constitutional protection for anything they say in the House. This was most famauslly used by Senator Mike Gravel to leak the Pentagon Papers, and set the precedent of Gravel v. United States that doing so is legal.
In reality, attempting to do so would cost significant political capitol, and will likely make it difficult for the Congressmen to get onto such committees in the future.