Walter Dellinger and Christopher Schroeder (a professor at Duke Law) conclude their New York Times op-ed today on Congress’s power to regulate military activities with a nice summary of why debate supports the troops:

One final debate-stifling claim deserves mention: the argument that even to debate our troops’ mission in Iraq somehow undercuts and endangers them. Surely this has it backward. Four years have passed since the Iraq war resolution was passed, in very different circumstances for purposes no longer relevant. We certainly owe those who put their lives on the line every day a renewed determination of whether their continued sacrifice is necessary for the national interest.