Let's start by asking a simple question. When is the last time the United States formally declared war?

I've now lived through multiple wars, the Gulf War, the Gulf War II Electric Bugaloo, Afghanistan, the War on Christmas.

But when did Congress last officially issue a declaration of war?

That would be World War II.

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately

attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked

and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States

and the Japanese Empire.

That was FDR occurring war on Japan, but actually we declared war multiple times during that

conflict. The last time was on June 5, 1942, when the United States formally declared war

on Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, client states of Nazi Germany.

Largely for reasons of politeness, FDR thought it was improprietal to fight an enemy without

first going through formal declarations of war as gentlemen.

So the answer to the question is, the last time the United States formally declared war

was on Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania in

1942. But we've been at war several times since then, haven't we? We are in fact actively

bombing, bombing the hell out of Iran. I would say we're at war with them. It's just a question of whether

or not it's a push-button war or whether it's a thing that's going to spiral out into

boots on the ground and or sand kind of war. Yet America has only formally declared war during

five conflicts. In 1812, against the United Kingdom, in the Mexican-American War, the

Spanish-American War, World War I, and finally, against our ancestral nemesist, Romania, in World War II.

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