If you knew Ryan like we know Ryan...

Ryan sends me a text today while I was at work. At first I thought it was another abject dismissal of my latest post... but then I read it again, and thought better.

Ryan said that he no longer defended the Patriot Act, no did he consider it "Constitutional". He didn't elaborate on this point, but continued by saying that Bush should have gotten a Congressional declaration of war against those that attacked us on 9/11 (and, presumably, those that supported them... the Taliban and the Ba'athists), and then used his War Powers to ensure, via executive order, that the walls and barriers between departments and agencies be brought down and the restructuring that Homeland Security and the Patriot Act brought about occurred anyway... without any question of constitutionality.

He brings up a good point, and I wanted to ask a question pertaining to it:

What if we HAD sought a formal declaration of war against the ruling party of Afghanistan for its part in supporting and protecting the madmen that planned and executed 9/11/2001?

The US never, officially or otherwise, recognized the Taliban government of Afghanistan (aka, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan). In fact, the only nations that did were Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE (a telling fact all by itself, huh?). Would seeking a formal declaration of war have constituted a de facto recognition of the Taliban? Could that have been part of the reasoning behind the lack of a formal declaration?

On the same point, some have pointed to the "declaration" by Bush of a War on Terror as the actual declaration against the attackers on 9/11... but (as has been hashed out here nearly endlessly...), I've never been a fan of this War on Terror. It smacked of past Presidential grand-standing like the War on Poverty (ala LBJ) and the War on Drugs (ala Nixon and Reagan). Both of these "wars" were (in my opinion) useless. They cost the US far more than they saved, and made those shouting their virtues seem out-of-touch and ill-informed. How can that help? For example, Reagan's decision to apply the assetts of the CIA and DIA in helping Mexico, Columbia and Panama in fighting their drug-related issues is a calssic example of good intentions coming back to bite one right in the ass. Bush had to invade Panama to remove the biggest druglord in the country... whom Reagan had supported with more than 300 million dollars worth of support and training only 8 years before. Ouch.

Thoughts?