OPINION — Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Article II establishes the president as commander-in-chief of the country’s military forces.
There have been a lot of learned men and women engage in a lot of chin-stroking about a supposedly gray area between these two roles and authorities. In reality, the framers intended a clear demarcation: Congress decides whether to fight. The president decides how to fight.
Alexander Hamilton highlighted the demarcation in Federalist No.69 by contrasting the authority granted to the president to that exercised by the king of Great Britain:
