Wartime secrecy

If Bush had gone to congress to seek authority to monitor certain calls, it would have been in the papers the next day. Is there no way to keep critical operations secret? Why are we not considered on a wartime footing of enough urgency not to arrest the security leaks from congress or any other government agency or person who does not have a need to know and certainly not to any press unless you want the enemy to know for the purpose of deception..This begs for some explanation..Are we at war or not? Is this a political, congresional, or civil conflict that can be run by the courts? I have yet see any military conflict that can be run by congress or courts of law. I have lived through two such conflicts(Korea and Vietnam)and saw them degenerate to conflicts of political correctness(whatever that is) and we had to cut and run because war cannot be won that way. Maybe some day when we get the military all automated and no one has to be exposed to danger, the congresss can sit at their consoles and fight all the conflicts they want..sheesh