Comment by dragonwriter

> It's not a war they were just capturing someone to face charges.

Invading a foreign country with military force is a war even if the purpose is to effect an arrest. And when the President claims that the intent is also that the US will run the country afterwards, its even more clearly a war.

> In the same way we didn't need to declare war against Pakistan to go in and get Osama

Congress had already exercised its power to declare war with an open-ended declaration almost immediately after the 9/11 attacks, which covered the operation direct against the head of al-Qaeda.

https://www.congress.gov/107/plaws/publ40/PLAW-107publ40.pdf