I strongly urge you to oppose the new worldwide authorisation to go to war that
has been buried, as Section 1034, deep inside the National Defense Authorization
Act.  Congress should not wholesale hand over to the President -- and all future
presidents -- the authority that the Constitution gives to Congress to decide
whether, where, and why the country will go to war.  If this provision passes,
there would be no further checks and balances on the use of the military against
terrorism suspects.

This new war authority would give the president -- any president, from any party
-- the power unilaterally to wage war wherever, whenever and however (s)he
decides. Unlike the legislation that authorised the Afghanistan war, the
proposed new war authority does not cite any specific threat of harm to the
United States.  This bill would move one further step towards an Orwellian state
of perpetual war, without clear enemies, without geographical boundaries, and
without any specific objectives or criteria for declaring the war's end.

I urge you to oppose the new worldwide war authority.