Why is President Obama’s Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), issued last week against ISIS (6 months late), so open ended? Who is the enemy if the enemy is called “associated forces?” It might be easier to classify our allies. My friend Gene Healy, vice president at Cato, writes in Newsweek:
Consider this exchange between Senator Udall and Secretary of State John Kerry, in Kerry’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last December:
UDALL: How should the authorization of force treat groups who have pledged their…allegiance to the Islamic State, including, as of December 2014, groups in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia?
KERRY: They should be associated forces. They fit under that category.
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