FDR went to Congress and got an official declaration of war on Japan after Pearl Harbour. He later got the same Congressional approval to go to war against Germany and Italy. And that was the last time an American administration went through the proper constitutional motions of going to war...which require certain governmental and legal formalities and the consent of Congress (which represents the people).

Presidents since FDR have found it much more convenient to have wars which are not declared....and that means that what they have really done is to act like kings who launch wars by decree, in effect, as a solitary commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces. This may be convenient, but it is not constitutional...and it is the epitome of hypocrisy to claim that these bloody "police actions" are not wars. They are wars, with all the physical features that characterize a war.

The General Staff plans attacks and issues orders. Ships go to sea, aircraft take to the air, guns are fired, bombs are dropped, battles are fought on foreign land, and people die. That's a war. You can call it by any other name you want, you can say you were "asked to go in" by someone (and the Germans used to say that too...), but it's still a war, and the power to wage war is supposed to be given by Congress not by presidential will.

The reason the Constitution was set up that way was to prevent American presidents from becoming, like most European Kings, absolute rulers and dictators, because it is simply too dangerous to entrust the decision to go to war to one man. If you can't get it authorized by the elected Congress of the nation, it should not be allowed to go ahead at all.