Authorized Use Of Military Force--How America Justifies It’s Deadly Drone Strikes and Unsuccessful Raids

War Powers Resolution:

• After the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Administrations spent nearly a decade committing U.S. troops to Southeast Asia without Congressional approval---
• In 1973: Congress passed the War Powers Resolution:
• The Resolution sought to halt the erosion of Congress’s ability to participate in war-making decisions.
• This also furthered by the Resolution’s requirement that the President communicate to Congress the commitment of troops within 48 hours. 
• Further, the statute requires the President to remove all troops after 60 days if Congress has not granted an extension.

Authorized Use Of Military Force (AUMF):

• Public Law  No.   107-40, 115 Stat. 224 (2001)--Authorized Use Of Military Force (AUMF) was enacted soon after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
• Congress gave the President unlimited warfare powers without needing to declare war.
• It let's the President order new military action without needing to ask Congress first.
• No expiration date on this mandate.

• The AUMF grants the President the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determines “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the 9/11 attacks.
• Or even those whom he assumed harbored those persons or groups.

• The AUMF is so powerful, the last president (President Obama) actually asked Congress to reduce it’s powers and to eventually repeal the mandate.
• Congress rejected him.
• Eventually Obama expanded his AUMF powers when he began battling the terror group born out of Al-Qaeda >> ISIS.

Courtesy of Long Island Press

Who Are We Actively Bombing Today With AUMF Powers?

• Iraq
• Since 2001--AUMF Terrorists
• Also called the “Iraq Resolution” in 2002.
• Afghanistan
• Ethiopia 
• Somalia
• The Obama administration recently expanded AUMF to include members of the African Islamist militant group al-Shabab. 

• The Shabab grew up as an Islamist insurgency after 2007, when Ethiopia, with American support, invaded Somalia to overthrow an Islamist council that had briefly taken control of much of the long-chaotic country.
• Obama’s characterization of al-Shabab — as an “associated force” of Al Qaeda has been controversial, with many experts warning that it is a slippery slope to a forever war.

• Pakistan
• Syria
• “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized” President Barack Obama
• Obama argued that it was necessary to intervene because the recent chemical weapons attack in Syria "risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemicals weapons" and that it put U.S. regional allies that share a border with Syria in danger.
• Section One of the bill gives the bill its short title: Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against the Government of Syria to Respond to Use of Chemical Weapons.

• Libya
• Yemen
•  50 airstrikes in March 2017 alone.

• The American citizens, innocent family members, of Anwar Al-Awlaki’s family---his 16 year old son and 8 year old sister on two separate occasions.

(Above: Nawar Al-Awlaki killed in Feb 2017 by a raid of US forces)
(Below: Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki killed in 2012 by cluster bombs of the Obama Administration)