How Presidents of the United States Overstep their Bounds and Defy the Constitution

Wesley Clark, a former United States Army General and a decorated Vietnam War veteran, states in his book Winning Modern Wars that “Defeating terrorism is more difficult and far-reaching than we have assumed....We may be advancing the ball down the field at will, running over our opponent's defenses, but winning the game is another matter altogether.” He also stated in the preface of the book “that the Bush administration had rushed us, pushed us, mislead, and manipulated us into war with Iraq with at the expense of the real war against Al- Qaeda.” Clark in writing stating this is essentially telling us we (The United States) have somehow overstepped our boundaries by acting in this “War on Terror,” and while he might have made a gutsy statement, he is correct. One would have to agree with Clark’s theory, our president, George W. Bush, who initiated the “War On Terror” essentially went into this war believing that armed forces were going to step into the terrorists backyard mow the lawn and come back home in one piece. Well, he was wrong, our troops have yet to come home and those who have did not come back in one piece; they came back with psychological bruises and others without their lives. Nevertheless, the impetus of this war was the lack of presidential checking that our Congress neglected to do. What caused it was that our former president, George W. Bush, unofficially expanded his powers as president, and acted impulsively rather than logically, which should have never and should never happen again. By discussing the original powers of the president as enumerated in the United States Constitution, as well as discussing how these powers have been changed, amplified, and taken advantage of during the “modern presidency” and ...

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... law. No one should supersede their roles or take advantage of it, as President Bush did when he went behind the backs of Congress and proceeded with his unconstitutional tactics. Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the U.S, once said “America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.” This is what America needs, a stable and able president and government to provide us with safety and protect our freedoms.

Works Cited

Bessette, Joseph M., John J. Pitney, and First Jr. American Government And Politics, Deliberation, Democracy, And Citizenship No Seperate Policy Chapters Editions. Boston: Wadsworth Pub Co, 2010. 429. Print.

Linder, Doug. "War and Treaty Powers of the U. S. Constitution." UMKC School of Law. 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.