Re: Re: By the way, Bill

> What's a "legal war" exactly?

There are a lot of different concepts getting conflated into this one term, 
depending on which group is making the case.  At its most basic level, it 
refers to an act of war undertaken without either a Congressional 
declaration, or as a State response to actual or imminent invasion.  Under 
the US Constitution, a state of war which does not meet one of those two 
requirements is illegal.  Next, it refers to a valid casus belli, or cause 
for war - essentially, the grievance which makes resort to war a valid 
and/or necessary act.  Traditionally, valid causes for war include invasion, 
imminent invasion, recovery of national lands, protection of one's citizens 
from a foreign power, invasion of an ally, and violation of a common treaty. 
Finally, it refers to a war authorized under the charter of the United 
Nations, either by action of the Security Council or recognized as valid 
recourse under the bylaws.

-Sloth 




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