What is the test for determining whether the question is a "political" matter?

Ordinarily, we preface our discussion of the legal issues in a case with a recitation

[471 F.2d 1148]

of the underlying facts. Even that threshold task is made difficult in a matter such as this, where the "facts" concerning the methods employed in waging war are difficult to sift, sui generis in nature and not of a kind ordinarily involved in framing a question for judicial resolution. Indeed, the difficulty encountered by a domestic judicial tribunal in ascertaining the "facts" of military decisions exercised thousands of miles from the forum, lies at the heart of the determination whether the question is a "political" one, see United States v. Sisson, 294 F.Supp. 515 (D. Mass.1968); where there are serious doubts concerning a court's power or fitness to decide the question raised, the political question doctrine may come into play.

[471 F.2d 1148]