Editor’s note: Now that war has begun, The Daily Standard will be deviating from its normal schedule. For the next several days we’ll have morning and afternoon editions posted regularly and other reports posted throughout the day, so you’ll want to check back with us often.
With Matt Labash and Stephen F. Hayes on the ground in the Middle East, Christopher Caldwell in Europe, and Fred Barnes, William Kristol, David Brooks, and the rest of the team in Washington, The Daily Standard will have some of the best reporting and analysis around. Stay tuned.
–JVL
TERSE IT WAS, and good that it was. The president reiterated the fundamental reason for the war–that we “can’t live at the mercy of an outlaw regime.” But the president didn’t dwell on the why of war. Now wasn’t the time for that. Or rather, the time had passed. Almost all of what Bush said last night concerned actions taken (“on my orders,” our forces have begun to strike) or to be taken (full measures, not “half ones,” such as failing to effect regime change).
Bush’s speech is a reminder that the presidency is fundamentally an office that was designed for action when necessary in behalf of the nation’s security. The Constitution vests “the executive power” in “a President of the United States,” to quote from Article II, Section I of the Constitution, and it lists, though not exhaustively, the various authorities and duties that the executive power includes.
But Article II is dry as dust. Alexander Hamilton, still our best theorist on the presidency, understood that the office had to be the source of the energy our government otherwise would lack and without which it would fail–as did the government under the Articles of Confederation. Energy, as Hamilton understood it, encompasses movement, indeed action. And hardly incidental is the fact that the very first power listed in Article II, Section II, is the one we see exercised right now: “The President shall be commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.”
As our forces invade, recall Hamilton, in Federalist No. 70: Energy in the executive “is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks.” And also Hamilton’s Federalist co-author, James Madison, in Federalist No. 37: “Energy in government [and therefore in the executive] is essential to . . . security against external and internal danger.”
And do pray, as the president urged, for our forces. But also be thankful for our presidency, the American presidency, an office designed for such a time as this, which calls for action in defense of the nation. And be grateful that the man in that office has risen to the occasion. He has acted. He is acting. Indeed, in his brief remarks, “on my orders” proved his most eloquent words.
Terry Eastland is publisher of The Weekly Standard.
