Obama’s Drone War

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Back in the days when we had them, declarations of war were short, simple, and clear. By contrast, the “Authorization for the Use of Military Force” (from here on AUMF) cobbled together by Congress and signed by President Bush after 9/11 reads more like a generic threat addressed, “To whom it may concern.” It authorizes the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations, or persons.”

This authorization, aiming America’s military might at whomever the president deemed responsible for the attacks, was unprecedented. It created a vague legal framework for a war against no specified enemy over whom we could achieve victory, a war whose aims were so amorphous that it could continue forever. George Bush called this conflict a “global war on terror,” but the left so ridiculed the phrase that even Bush gave up on the term. Twelve years later, after more than a decade of American troops in action, we’re finally withdrawing from Afghanistan, just as we withdrew from Iraq. We have lost thousands of lives in an absurd Wilsonian pursuit of democracy in two nations where it is precluded by Islamic law.