In Article I, Section 8 of our revered U.S. Constitution, we learn that “The Congress shall have Power … To declare War.”

On Saturday, Jan. 3, in the news, we learned that the United States has committed acts of war against Venezuela by the unilateral decision of the executive branch, with no vote by Congress to declare such a war.

That's unconstitutional, plain and simple. It is illegal by the laws our founders set down. All explanations that you will hear from the mainstream media in the coming days will ignore and hide this fact.

Many will say that Nicolás Maduro is a bad guy, an illegitimate autocrat, a narco-terrorist, and he deserves it — so what does it matter? Let's not forget the cost. We bought the lies during the Bush and Obama years. For a generation, we lost our sons and brothers to death and PTSD, all while creating more chaos and anti-American extremism overseas. Those presidents broke our laws, and the rest of us still face the consequences. Yet we failed to hold them accountable.

We Americans must learn from our mistakes, and not fail this time. But how?

Fortunately, our founders also provided us the remedy in Article I, Sections 2-3: impeachment and removal. It is time to use it.

Brittney Scaccia,

Summit Township