In article , Renata wrote:
I see. Promoting general welfare is heavily restricted, but promoting
common defense can be stretched any which way.

No, you don't see.

The first and most important duty of any government is ensuring the security
of its citizens; that is, providing for the common defense. If government does
not attend to that, and we don't see to it ourselves, there won't be any
general welfare left to promote.

Almost _anything_ the government does is heavily restricted by the
Constitution. Unfortunately, Amendment X is often ignored, but it's still the
law of the land.

The Constitution is, in most cases, quite specific about the things that the
government may, or may not, do. Amendment X makes it clear that anything the
government is not specifically authorized to do, it is prohibited from doing.
This would include, for example, taking money from the pocket of one citizen
and giving it to another, or ordering states to care for indigents within
their borders while not providing the funds with which to do so.

The Constitution specifically authorizes the establishment and maintenance of
armed forces, specifically institutes the President as Commander-in-Chief
thereof - and places remarkably few restrictions on those forces in general,
or on the President's authority as Commander-in-Chief in particular.




--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?