The United States is currently fighting two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But not officially. Although American soldiers are dying on foreign soil, no war was ever declared by Congress.

In fact, the last official declaration of war by the United States was in 1941, when this country entered World War II.

But there has been plenty of fighting since then. First, there was Korea, technically described as a “police action” sanctioned by the United Nations. Later, America became bogged down in Vietnam.

For various reasons, in these and in lesser instances, Congress refrained from declaring war. In the cases of Korea and Vietnam, the enemy represented only part of the country, while the U.S. was allied with the other portion. Hence, declaring war was technically not the thing to do.

Rather, there have been congressional resolutions authorizing the president to use military force. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution is history’s most famous example. But the one Congress approved prior to President Bush’s invasion of Iraq isn’t far behind.

The Iraq resolution received far-from-unanimous support from Congress when it passed in 2002. And it’s probably safe to say that if it came up today, it would not be approved.

After the Iraq invasion and an aftermath far bloodier than Washington envisioned, some supporters of that resolution complained that they weren’t actually voting for war. They said they were simply giving the president a bargaining tool against Saddam Hussein.

If so, they should have known better.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration treated its mission in Iraq much as it does other activities — as a matter that was no one else’s business. The American people and Congress were kept in the dark, which inevitably leads to unpleasant surprises.

And it also leads members of Congress to bail on policies that don’t go according to plan.

That brings us to a report released this week by a bipartisan commission established to find ways to avoid similar problems in the future. Headed by Republican James Baker and Democrat Warren Christopher — both former secretaries of state — the commission outlined procedures it believes will improve the dialog between the executive and legislative branches on matters pertaining to war.

Primarily, lawmakers would be called upon to concur with the use of force in the case of a major military action.

The proposal also calls for the creation of a new joint House-Senate committee that would review information provided by the administration. The goal is to force the two chambers of government to communicate with each other. It would force Congress to pay attention and the administration to be accountable.

This proposal won’t solve every problem whenever a military action goes sour, but we view the recommendations as constructive and worthy of pursuit.