Donald Trump’s announcement to pull American troops out of Syria seems to have given birth to an opposite effect….
Starting efforts by Democrats and some Republicans in Congress to curb his ability to send troops to fight overseas…..
With a President that does not like to consult with his military leaders and who seems to continue to move to help out Putin’s Russia with it’s foreign policy goals?….Lawmakers will mount an effort to cut back even more latitude given to President in response to the post 911 time….
“One of the things that I’m most concerned with is this blank check any president has based on the 2001 AUMF,” Rep. Eliot Engel, the New York Democrat in line to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an interview. “I voted for it, it was necessary at the time, but I never would’ve imagined that any president could use it as sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card. A card to do whatever you want to do.”
Since the 2001 vote, three presidents have used the authorization to justify open-ended hostilities in countries across Asia and Africa, including against terror groups like the Islamic State that didn’t exist when al-Qaida struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Congress has spurned several opportunities to revisit the authorization, even during the two years of unified Democratic control of Washington in Barack Obama’s early presidency.
Some House Republicans agree that it’s long since time to revisit the 2001 war approval.
“I do think it is constitutionally absurd that we’re still operating largely on the 9/11 AUMF,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican and Marine veteran of the war in Iraq…..
Note….
Thew effort will be a uphill battle…Although lawmakers ARE worried about Donald Trump and the military …Congress seldom confronts a President directly on military policy matters….