Well it looks like the first shots have been fired in our war with Iraq. Both CNN and MSNBC have stories telling about our “decapitation attack” to kill Saddam Hussein. CNN’s headline reads ‘DECAPITATION ATTACK’ in big bold letters. MSNBC has a nice picture of Baghdad exploding. Their headline is WAR, with a nice red bullet point that states “Initial strikes aimed at killing Saddam”.

So here is were I have to be careful. Because I don’t want to go and pull a Dixie Chick or anything. But I was reading my copy of the Constitution and I had to re read it a few times because I was confused.

Section. 8.
The Congress shall have Power…To declare War

So my question is this Operation Iraqi Freedom a war? Or has the definition of war changed? Dictionary.com defines war as:

A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties.

The following bit from the MSNBC story says:

President Bush told the nation Wednesday night that the “opening stages” of Operation Iraqi Freedom were under way. U.S. forces stepped up what had been intended as an initial softening of the battlefield by launching an aerial bombardment of Baghdad in an attempt to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Kinda sounds like a start of a war to me. I found a interesting link on google called Declaring and Waging War: The U.S. Constitution that sums up my query here. So let me repeat that I’m not bashing what’s going on over there. I’m not for or against it. In fact I have no real opinion on this subject that I will utter here or any where else. I’m just thinking aloud.