War

Trump admin says current law permits new wars without Congress vote - UPI.com
UPI reports: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress Monday that a 2001 authorization for war against terrorist groups provides adequate permission to continue military operations in several countries around the world. Since the death of four American soldiers in Niger this month, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have begun to question the United States' longstanding foreign policy of conducting anti-terrorism military operations in foreign countries without Congressional approval. Such operations have been allowed since Congress approved the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists act on Sept. 14, 2001, just three days after the 9/11 attacks."

Comment:  I was going to point out how odd it is that we have come to accept the idea that the U.S. is now engaged in a long-term war with vague parameters about who/what/when/where and everyone seems fine with that...but then another terrorist attack happened. Honestly, I don't know what to think about it anymore. I know that generations of Americans, going back to the Founders', thought about war was a specific and well-defined thing, that the country would be at war with another country until victory was achieved. That was what war meant. In that context the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war. An open-ended war against a constantly changing adversary would have been incomprehensible to them, as would the idea of Congress giving the President a blank check to wage war. Yet, here we are.