[mburbank]

Serious question, here. In what way does the American public need to aquiesce? W is commander in chief, he doesn't need congressional or popular approval to order a strike, and then the whole mess is a fate accompli.

It wouldn't be a stretch for him to say congress already gave him the authority to do it. He's said as much about warantless wiretapping already. His interpretation is that congress told him he could do whatever he felt neccesary in the war on terror.

He's a lame duck, but all his powers are intact. If he feels 'called' to do this, it will be next to impossible for the next President, Democrat por Repubican, not to continue it.

Suppose he has a Kevinistic belief that this iraq and Afghanistan were just the start of a 'great war' that must happen. Public support is dropping. The next President will have to think about election, and then reelection. No future President will have the power to get the ball rolling that he does, and once rolling no future President will be ablse to simply say 'oops' and stop it. That's a lot of temptation for folks as megalomaniacal as this current bunch.