Cut the Head Off the Snake: The Constitutional Solution to ISIS » Barb Wire
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has called ISIS an imminent menace to the United States, which ISIS has confirmed by issuing direct threats against the United States. “We will raise the flag of Allah in the White House,” and “If the United States bomb Iraq (N.B.: which Obama has done), every American citizen is a legitimate target.”
So if air strikes aren’t the answer, and we are not ready – and assuredly we are not – for another ground war in the land of Saddam, what is our alternative?
Once again, the Constitution provides the solution, in a little noticed provision in Article I, Section 8. Among the enumerated powers we the people delegated to Congress is the following: “To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.” (emphasis mine).
What is a “letter of marque and reprisal?” “Marque” refers to a boundary, and “reprisal” to the redress of a wrong. As Wikipedia correctly puts it, “A ‘letter of marque and reprisal’ would involve permission to cross an international border to effect a reprisal (take some action against an attack or injury) authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders.”
While originally it was designed to deal with marauding pirates on the open seas, the power of action described here clearly refers to a situation in which there is a threat to the United States and its people but there is no sovereign state against which to declare war. It’s designed to deal with rogue agents who represent a danger to our safety. In other words, it’s for renegades just like the head of ISIS.
Cut the Head Off the Snake: The Constitutional Solution to ISIS » Barb Wire
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has called ISIS an imminent menace to the United States, which ISIS has confirmed by issuing direct threats against the United States. “We will raise the flag of Allah in the White House,” and “If the United States bomb Iraq (N.B.: which Obama has done), every American citizen is a legitimate target.”
So if air strikes aren’t the answer, and we are not ready – and assuredly we are not – for another ground war in the land of Saddam, what is our alternative?
Once again, the Constitution provides the solution, in a little noticed provision in Article I, Section 8. Among the enumerated powers we the people delegated to Congress is the following: “To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures 
on land and water.” (emphasis mine).
What is a “letter of marque and reprisal?” “Marque” refers to a boundary, and “reprisal” to the redress of a wrong. As Wikipedia correctly puts it, “A ‘letter of marque and reprisal’ would involve permission to cross an international border to effect a reprisal (take some action against an attack or injury) authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders.”
While originally it was designed to deal with marauding pirates on the open seas, the power of action described here clearly refers to a situation in which there is a threat to the United States and its people but there is no sovereign state against which to declare war. It’s designed to deal with rogue agents who represent a danger to our safety. In other words, it’s for renegades just like the head of ISIS.