The framers of the United States Constitution intended to wrest the newly formed nation from the yoke of the British Empire wherein immutable authority was vested in a monarch. Regal titles (e.g. prince, marquess, earl, count, duke, viscount, baron) have roots in medieval feudalism. They define the territorial scope of regal authority. A king reigns over a nation. An emperor exercises dominion beyond, over colonies, protectorates, and territories wrested by conquest.

The “Nobility Clause” of Article I, Clause 8 of Section 9 of the Constitution provides that no title of nobility shall be granted by the United States. Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution also prohibits states from granting a title of nobility. These provisions underscore that the Founding Fathers established a federation having checks and balances between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government in order to foreclose the resurgence of regal autocracy.

Military discipline based on progressive ranks necessarily exists in the commissioned officer corps of the branches of the United States armed services. Authority is invested along an echelon of command, from second lieutenant to higher classifications of rank. The highest military rank is vested in a five-star general. There are equivalent commissioned officer ranks using Navy designations, ranging from ensign to four-star admiral. In order to avoid the autocracy of a military dictatorship, ultimate command is vested in the civilian office of the President of the United States under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution: “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States ….” Although the highest military command is vested in a president, it isn’t absolute and immutable.

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war and initiate armed hostilities. Presidents notwithstanding have deployed military force (herein collectively referred to as “police actions”), without a formal congressional declaration of war. President Truman ordered U.S. forces into combat in Korea; President Reagan ordered the use of military force in Libya, Grenada and Lebanon; President George H.W. Bush directed an invasion of Panama to topple the government of Manual Noriega; and President Obama used air strikes to support the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. These military interventions arguably circumvented the constitutional imperative giving Congress the sole power to declare war. The restraint on a president’s command authority accordingly can be an ephemeral illusion. A more precise standard should be articulated by the Supreme Court, and codified by congressional legislation, to meaningfully distinguish war from other hostile military actions. Otherwise the labels of war and police actions remain changeable as the color of a chameleon’s skin.

One standard helping to clarify war from police actions is contained in Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. Police actions can be initiated with the authorization obtained from the United Nations if a nation poses a threat to international peace and security and when a state has perpetrated, or threatens an imminent act of aggression against another state. A police action may also be justified when a state acts in self-defense against an attack, or immediate threat of attack, by an aggressor state. Neither circumstance existed which justified Trump to launch a preemptive attack against Iran, absent a congressional declaration of war. This doesn’t mean that eradicating Iran’s rapidly developing nuclear arsenal was not imperative. Iran is a key sponsor of terrorism. It uses the derogatory epithets of “Great Satan” and “Death to America” to express fanatic zeal to annihilate our nation. Only the absence of a congressional declaration of war is at issue. Trump manifests the unbridled authority of an emperor. It places the United States and its allies at risk of a broadening conflict affecting the welfare and security of the Middle East, and beyond. Trump flaps wings as an indomitable eagle over the world as his nest. This is viewed by many here and abroad as a cockamamie cuckoo on a precious perch. Hopefully the terrorist regime in Iran will follow the course of a dodo bird, and not inflict retaliation with the talons of a rapacious raptor.

Ralph Josephsohn is a longtime resident of Longmont and a semi-retired attorney.