   About the President of the United States
  What are his real powers ?  It is anything like the american movies'' famous "OMG MISTAR PRESIDENT! PRESS TEH RED BUTTON NOW !!" - "NO NO NO DON''T" - "YES KILL TEH COMMIES!" ?Does he really have the power to take such decisions alone ?We hear that it is "Bush''s War" all the time, that he''s a jerk, etc.But really, how much power does he have ?  I''m not asking for conspirationists theories whereas everyone is pullling the strings;  but rather how much decision he is allowed to take himself.Let''s take the war in Iraq as an example ?  As an emblem of democracy,  The United States must have had a kind of vote on this issue.  If we take it the other way, is it possible that the war would have happened EVEN if Bush didn''t agree with it ?Or is it that we actually use "Bush" when it should be "our elected officials ?" 
  I don''t have time to write a full response.However, in recent times (post WW2), Presidents have discovered that their status as Commander-In-Chief of the US army allows them to fight a war...without actually submitting it to Congress. There are rules on this (they were instituted earlier, possibly during Nixon or Reagan) but it still allows Presidents to get an agenda through, regardless of what Congress thinks. ;  He can fight a war for like 90 days untill he needs congress approval plus congress controls the money. However Congress would most likely not just do a cold turkey pullout. Also I think the president can infact launch a nuke without Congresional approval.    ;  Launching nukes? We haven''t launched any nukes at any people, since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. So you really don''t have a ground to stand on unless you can find some official stuff expressing he has the power to launch nukes, without anyones approval. Honestly, what the OP asked is a hard question. You have what the president is supposed to be able to do, and what he can really do, through intimidation of rank, budget cutting, etc. So please be more specific, or it will take awhile to get good answers. ;  Movies (which try to be historically accurate) depict missle crises with the President and several cabinet members having control (advisors, generals), but they''re usually submissive, they''re not going to say, no you can''t have my authorization card b/c I don''t want you to launch the nukes.  Yeah, so I don''t think he/she even has to call congress on the tele.  Congress: "Sit down son... We don''t even read most of the bills that come through here." -- from trailer of Michael Moore''s new doc regarding the passing of the Patriot Acts.  Moore for pres! ;  The president is the commander-in-chief of the United States military forces, and as the highest commanding officer (though still technically a civilian, as you cannot be on active duty while serving in another government post), he is the only person with authority high enough to authorize a nuclear strike.  Certainly, the president does NOT need to inform Congress of this before taking action.Also as commander-in-chief, he has the authority to order the troops anywhere he wishes, to do anything he really pleases.  The only catch is that Congress, and not the president, allocates funds to the military.  Therefore, if any president does something that the Congress feels is wrong, they can withold funds, thus ending any military action.  (Note that the War Powers Act actually specifies that the president needs some Congressional approval before taking military action in some circumstances, but not all).  This is an excellent example of the separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative branches of the government.As for Iraq, Congress approved of the use of force, so we can''t place all the blame on the president for going to war.  They could have simply voted against it, but they didn''t.  John Kerry is one of many democrats who voted for the use of force resolution.  These use of force resolutions are an excellent example of the War Powers Act in action.Also, keep in mind that in the past we used to actually declare war first, and only Congress can do that.  So, technically speaking, whenever the president or John Ashcroft or whoever says we''re "at war," they''re telling a blatant lie.  We never declared war on anyone.  And we haven''t since World War II. 