AUMF

In a scathing New York Times op-ed today, Micah Zenko lays into the Trump administration both for maintaining the “counterproductive” and “immoral” counterterrorism policies of its predecessors (particularly those involving the use of military force), and for making the situation worse for noncombatants.  It is a passionate

A pretty remarkable development in today's House Appropriations markup on the Defense Appopriations bill.  For many years, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has been putting forward amendments intended to repeal or sunset the 2001 AUMF.  They normally do not go anywhere.  This morning she moved one that would terminate the 2001 AUMF in 240 days, and lo-and-behold the majority went along with it.  It passed with only Kay Granger (R-TX) opposing.  

Early Sunday evening, a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian Air Force Su-22 that had just completed a bombing run targeting US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Raqqa region.  The episode raises important questions under the U.N. Charter (see Adil Ahmad Haque’s analysis here).  But what about U.S. domestic law?  

It just is not possible to read this document and not come away with a sense that the administration has endeavored to think through the range of issues it confronts in overseas terrorism operations in a systematic fashion and to make the framework it has developed as public as possible.