Are we at war?
The point though, is that the 2001 AUMF was in fact an authorization to use military force to go after terrorism. It was not an authorization to conduct a full-scale war against another nation, or to become enmeshed in a civil war in another nation, which is what is going on in Afghanistan today. That, in fact, is why even Bush felt he needed a second AUMF to authorize his invasion of Iraq…
The truth is that not one act of terrorism outside of Afghanistan has been attributed to the Taliban of Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban, while admittedly a brutal, reactionary, fundamentalist group of militant Islamists, are not global jihadis bent on wreaking havoc in the Western world or even in the rest of the Islamic world. They are a domestic Afghan military and political movement that is seeking to return to power in Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda, the organization that was the target of the Congressional AUMF resolution in 2001, has long since abandoned Afghanistan for safer, greener pastures.
This being the case, Obama’s war in Afghanistan, and especially his decision to intensify it dramatically, is being conducted illegally, without any actual authorization from Congress, as required by the Constitution.
One thing that has irked me about the latest troop escalation (ok there’s more than one thing) is the misuse of the word “war.” “War” is an act declared by one country on another, not an act declared by one country on a process. In this case terrorism is the process, a process of inflicting fear and harm, but nothing more than a process- a means of accomplishing a goal. We might as well be declaring war on global computer hacking or war on money launderers or a war on liars. The concept is so nebulous and implies a perpetual “rooting out” of whomever we arbitrarily feel fits the bill.
Another point I would like clarified is our end goal. Is it stabilization of a foreign country? And if so, how do we define stabilization? We have military bases in over 100 countries. Aren’t all of those other countries sufficiently stable yet? When do we close those down?
I’m sure there’s a rational explanation for it all and it must just be too complicated for me to understand. Someone please clarify these things for me so I can feel better about myself as an American…I thought that’s what I was supposed to be feeling by now.
