Aug 14, 2014

60 Words Update

Since we first reported this story a number of things related to the 2001 AUMF have happened. We have seen a call for the repeal of this AUMF, but as of now the law remains on the books... 

On August 7th, President Obama authorized strikes against the terrorist organization in Iraq calling itself The Islamic State (Or ISIS or ISIL). For now the legal authority behind this action is all Article II power but the longer this conflict lasts (and the president seems to be preparing us for a long conflict) the more important it will become for the president to have a piece of legislation to back him up

Some have worried he might try to use those old 60 words to justify this battle, but as many scholars have pointed out Al-Qaeda 'divorced' ISIS back in February of this year, so there is no possible link to the terrorist group who committed September 11th and therefore no way to use the 2001 AUMF. 

Many think that Obama will have to ask Congress for a NEW Authorization For Use of Military Force for this specific conflict. In fact on July 25th the house passed a resolution which said that the president has to do exactly that - get authorization from Congress for a sustained presence of combat troops in Iraq. 

But asking congress to authorize a new war, is probably the last thing a president who has vowed to end wars wants to do. 

As mentioned in the hour here's a link to Barbara Lee's 9/14/01 speech:

And this is the spiciest part of the Senate hearing from 5/16/2013 that we talked about:

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