Petition to Congress: A Vote Needs to Be Taken on War with Iraq

.... Oh, dear.

Well ... they're not wrong, necessarily. Congress should most certainly debate the issues. And it is arguable whether or not Congress "authorizing" the president to enter the nation into conflict with Iraq under the aegis of the UN (or not, as the case may be) suffices for the Constitutional requirement. (Of course, the problem is that, once it's signed off on said "authorization", Congress is quite happy to allow the president to conduct war without their express declaration. Allows a bit of wiggle room, you see. But I digress.)

In any event, as I say, it's not that the historians are wrong, precisely.

But I do have the temptation to lean over 1,300 shoulders and say, "Um ... people? You're historians. You have no money. You have no voice that the public at large pays attention to. Why on earth do you think that Congress would care in the least what you say?"

However, being as that is a profoundly undemocratic sentiment, I would never do such a thing.

(Has anyone noticed that over the past year, academics have been in a veritable petition frenzy? And they all seem to have been singularly ineffective.)