Bob Bird: Foreign wars and the Constitution

By BOB BIRD 

March 2, 2026 -The Alaska’s Story’s poll [newsletter March 2] demonstrated to me a disturbing fact: Conservatives like war. It is the default position for most of us and is one reason that I often no longer refer to myself as a conservative, but rather as a constitutionalist. But be advised that not everyone who clicked “No” to the Iranian action was a liberal.

It’s my personal cross to bear whenever I write columns. As I analyze the term “conservative” in the political sense, it is what I would prefer to call myself. After all, who doesn’t want to conserve the Constitution?

However, the pro-war MAGA faction has blindly followed poor, abused and targeted Donald without question, in all things. I can even understand why he has acted the way he has: the Deep State, which is a far greater threat to humanity than he is, does not play by any rules, so why should he?

But he did make some pretty iron-clad promises: “After I’m re-elected, I’m not going to start any new wars, I’m going to end the old ones.” Sick of the Biden-Obama wars, who dropped the anti-war Left into the dustbin, patriots from all stripes, many of whom were once liberals, voted him back into office. They didn’t like the Republican wars of the Bush Family, either.

Talk about annexing Greenland and Canada were, to my mind, childish fantasies, and turned me off. Yes, I realize that Trump may be motivated by Chinese toe-holds into Venezuela and Greenland, but aside from extending our reach and resources to the breaking point, what about the fact that we ignore how China now owns an awful lot of American farmland?

Executive-order tariffs are another violation, even if tariffs are long overdue to correct the trade imbalance that goes back to the Lame Duck Clinton Congress of 1994, and even if Congress (which had no constitutional authority to do so) has given presidents limited use of tariff-making powers.

Alaskans would do well to remember that the Antiquities Act, passed under the war-monger and overrated president Teddy Roosevelt, was to allow Teddy the power to withdraw certain SMALL tracts of land that were of cultural and historical value, without bothering Congress.

This is what Jimmy Carter used to lock up millions of acres of our natural resources, until he could get Ted Stevens to broker the permanent deal, ANILCA, and made Alaska “America’s national park.” It is the primary reason why the AIP was created.

And I don’t care if millions of Venezuelans or Iranians are cheering these wars. I am neither a Venezuelan nor an Iranian, and I am certainly not a Zionist. I am an American, and if needs must, I am an Alaskan first, who understands that the American republic was constructed to keep a group of sovereign, independent STATES together in a confederation of self-defense and free trade.

And, aside from the fact that all military action will create hard-core anti-American terrorists for years into the future, all wars must be declared. We have avoided this in obvious ways since 1950, and if we are honest, a lot longer before then as well.

I grant that the need to give the nuclear codes into the hands of all presidents is necessary, so why haven’t we passed a constitutional amendment to make it, um, constitutional? For the same reason we haven’t done so in creating the Air Force and the Space Force, for the same reason we haven’t done so for national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges and forests. It would call into question the legitimacy of many more federal powers, with its accompanying renegade bureaucracies.

The cry, “It’s unconstitutional!” is trotted out by both parties in shameless ways whenever it suits their selfish agendas. What passes as “constitutional” these days is as follows:

Whatever the Supreme Court thinks.

Whatever violations both parties agree to.

Whatever is popular.

Aside from undeclared wars, we can go to more obvious violations quite easily.

By passing the 17^th Amendment in the so-called “Progressive Era” of the early 20^th century, we stole the “equal suffrage” of the states in the Senate. It placed both houses of Congress into the hands of the people. So, what’s wrong with that, you say? This enabled the power of journalism to control public opinion, and removed the “Upper House” of the insulation needed to protect states’ rights, by the state legislatures choosing their Senators. I don’t need to be told it was an imperfect system. What we need to ask ourselves is, was it an improvement?

And, like the 14^th and 16^th amendments, there are hard-core constitutional scholars who ask the disturbing question: did their passage violate Article V? Check my previous columns, still posted online, or read the book The Law That Never Was.

From there, we can go to the truly obvious violations that are a major impact in our constitutional mess: inflation, caused by the unconstitutional Federal Reserve Bank, and the abandonment of the clearly mandated gold and silver standard. Most of our cabinet departments and their substrata, such as the EPA, IRS, NOAA, and departments of Education, Energy, Agriculture, ad infinitum.

The squeals of complaints that would emanate from a truly constitutional republic are loud and often, and from both sides of the aisle. The truth is, we prefer comfort to liberty. Franklin noted correctly that “There is no known cure for luxury.”

Quincy Adams, a poor president, was much better in his role as a senator and congressman. His greatest speeches not only extolled anti-slavery and states’ rights sentiments, but also in foreign policy. His advice echoed Washington’s warning about “entangling alliances”.  “[America] “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” and that an America that aspired to world leadership, even in the name of noble ideas, would be led astray: “She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”

This does not fit into the US that we now live under. The question to ask is: Are we better off?

Conservative talk radio host Bob Bird anchors the “Talk of the Kenai” show for KSRM, and was named the 2025 Broadcaster of the Year by the Alaska Broadcasters Association.

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