Another year, another pointless war

Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson School of Law: Although the proposed AUMF contains some purported limitations, President Obama is essentially asking Congress to bless endless war against anyone he wants, wherever he wants. The statute would contain no geographical limit and allow military force against the Islamic State and ‘associated forces,’ which is broad and vague. And although it would prohibit ‘enduring offensive operations,’ there is a loophole that allows the limited use of ground troops. By labeling operations ‘defensive,’ Obama or the next president could use increasing numbers of ground troops. Moreover, the 2001 AUMF has been stretched well beyond what Congress intended, and there is no reason to believe the 2015 AUMF will not as well.”

Cora Currier,  Intercept -  The administration’s draft law “would not authorize long-term, large-scale ground combat operations” like Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama wrote in a letter accompanying the proposal. The draft’s actual language is vague, allowing for ground troops in what Obama described as “limited circumstances,” like special operations and rescue missions.

The authorization would have no geographic limitations and allow action against “associated persons or forces” of the Islamic State....

Speaking at New York University School of Law this afternoon, Harold Koh, the State Department’s 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.

Koh said that stretching the law like that is inconsistent with Obama’s stated goal of bringing the U.S. off of “perpetual wartime footing.” Acting without a new authorization from Congress “doesn’t promote the end of the ‘Forever War,’” Koh said.

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 compiled by journalist Chris Woods.

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 11th, 2001 and just 60 words long, that law in broad language gave the White House the power to go after anyone connected to the 9/11 attacks.

Thirteen years on, it is still the main legal backing for the war in Afghanistan and for the targeted killings of alleged Al Qaeda affiliates in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia–though there is now a growing consensus among legal scholars and some members of Congress that the law is being used to justify military action it wasn’t originally intended to cover.

Tying ISIS to the 9/11 attacks on the basis of a tenuous relationship to Al Qaeda is probably taking things too far, Koh and others argue.

RT - The US military will train Kiev troops fighting against militias in southeast Ukraine, Ben Hodges, US Army Europe commander, said hours before the start of “Normandy Four” talks dubbed a “last chance” for the peaceful resolution of the conflict. The training, which is scheduled to kick off in March, will see a battalion of American troops training three battalions of Ukrainians, he said.

Scrape away the verbal clutter, this means we will have troops actively engaged in supporting the fight against pro-Russian Ukrainian rebels. - TPR