{"id":5652,"date":"2015-02-13T07:07:54","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T12:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=5652"},"modified":"2015-02-13T07:07:54","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T12:07:54","slug":"obama-asks-congress-to-authorize-war-thats-already-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=5652","title":{"rendered":"OBAMA ASKS CONGRESS TO AUTHORIZE WAR THAT\u2019S ALREADY STARTED"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/firstlook.org\/theintercept\/2015\/02\/11\/obama-asks-congress-permission-war-thats-already-started\/\" target=\"_blank\">OBAMA ASKS CONGRESS TO AUTHORIZE WAR THAT\u2019S ALREADY STARTED<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>As the U.S. continues to bomb the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, President Obama asked Congress today to approve a new legal framework for the ongoing military campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The administration\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/docs\/aumf_02112015.pdf\">draft law<\/a>\u00a0\u201cwould not authorize long-term, large-scale ground combat operations\u201d like Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama wrote in a<a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2015\/02\/11\/letter-president-authorization-use-united-states-armed-forces-connection\">letter<\/a>\u00a0accompanying the proposal. The draft\u2019s actual language is vague, allowing for ground troops in what Obama described as \u201climited circumstances,\u201d like special operations and rescue missions.<\/p>\n<p>The authorization would have no geographic limitations and allow action against \u201cassociated persons or forces\u201d of the Islamic State. It would expire in three years.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at New York University School of Law this afternoon, Harold Koh, the State Department\u2019s legal adviser until 2013, said that the Obama administration is currently on shaky legal grounds, tying the airstrikes to a law passed days after 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>Koh said that stretching the law like that is inconsistent with Obama\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2013\/05\/23\/remarks-president-national-defense-university\">stated goal<\/a>\u00a0of bringing the U.S. off of \u201cperpetual wartime footing.\u201d Acting without a new authorization\u00a0from Congress\u00a0\u201cdoesn\u2019t promote the end of the \u2018Forever War,\u2019\u201d Koh\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p>Since August, the U.S. and other nations have carried out more than 2,300 airstrikes, according to data released by the U.S. military and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1gswM0MC1_tBDnLWQWUy3DQSGYHdshxAh2mlj4Cw3K-4\/edit\">compiled<\/a>\u00a0by journalist Chris Woods.<\/p>\n<p>The administration currently justifies those airstrikes by invoking self-defense and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. Passed one week after the September 11<sup>th<\/sup>, 2001 and just 60 words long, that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/drone-strikes-test-legal-grounds-for-war-on-terror\">law in broad language<\/a>\u00a0gave the White House the power to go after anyone connected to the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OBAMA ASKS CONGRESS TO AUTHORIZE WAR THAT\u2019S ALREADY STARTED As the U.S. continues to bomb the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, President Obama asked Congress today to approve a new legal framework for the ongoing military campaign. The administration\u2019s\u00a0draft law\u00a0\u201cwould not authorize long-term, large-scale ground combat operations\u201d like Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama wrote in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1239,447,584,776,1796,862,3497],"class_list":["post-5652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-is","tag-islamic-state","tag-obama","tag-syria","tag-us-congress","tag-war","tag-war-powers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5653,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652\/revisions\/5653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}