The failure of U.S. Congress to pass a formal authorization for the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) means incoming President Donald Trump—whose brash and impulsive approach to foreign policy has raised alarms—will have effectively unlimited war powers, Politico reported Thursday.
In the absence of such a resolution, President Barack Obama has relied on the existing Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as justification for military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. Attempts to replace or rein in the AUMF have failed.
As Politico explains:
It remains to be seen how the Trump administration would interpret the broad powers he is stepping into. But some anti-war Democrats are very concerned.
They “worry that without an updated legal framework to govern the war on terror, Trump could turn some of his controversial campaign rhetoric into reality—from vows to bring back waterboarding to killing the families of terrorists,” wrote Politico’s Austin Wright. “Without a new resolution, Trump is likely to have almost unlimited powers as he takes over U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan and potentially ratchets up ongoing efforts to hunt down and kill suspected terrorists the world over.”
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Politico: “You could easily see him wanting to ramp up the war on terror and take it to new parts of the globe. There are few limits on what he can do.”
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