The Frontier

Jad Abumrad notes the US drone strike on Iranian General Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport highlighted the executive branch's reliance on expansive self-defense justifications.

Gregory Johnson explains that White House lawyer Timothy Flanagan drafted the 2001 AUMF by copying and modifying the 1991 Gulf War resolution template. The resulting 60-word sentence became the legal foundation for the war on terror.

Representative Barbara Lee and her colleagues feared the AUMF would mirror the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. That resolution gave President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authority to escalate the Vietnam War without further congressional approval.

Representative Barbara Lee cast the sole dissenting vote against the AUMF, which passed the House 420 to 1 and the Senate 98 to 0. Lee subsequently received over 60,000 letters, including numerous death threats.

John Bellinger argues the phrase 'all necessary and appropriate force' legally encompasses detention. This interpretation allowed the US to detain thousands of individuals at Guantanamo Bay for over a decade without charges.

Gregory Johnson traces the term 'associated forces' to a 2004 memo by Paul Wolfowitz. This unwritten addition expanded the AUMF's scope beyond Al-Qaeda to include co-belligerent groups, though the official list of these enemies remains classified.

Senator Angus King and Chairman Carl Levin challenged defense officials during a 2013 hearing over the legal boundaries of 'associated forces.' The exchange revealed that the Senate Armed Services Committee did not possess the classified list of active US adversaries.

Daniel Klaidman describes top-secret SVTS video conferences where hundreds of national security officials review 'baseball cards' of targets. These meetings rely heavily on military lawyers to validate the legality of targeted drone strikes before execution.

Daniel Klaidman details a 2010 dispute between State Department lawyer Harold Koh and Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson over targeting Al-Shabaab's Sheikh Mukhtar Robow. Koh successfully blocked the strike by arguing Robow was not actively targeting Western interests.

Senator Tim Kaine notes that in 2013, defense officials testified that the 2001 AUMF would cover newly associated terrorist groups for another 10 to 20 years. This timeline solidifies the conflict as the longest war in US history.

Benjamin Wittes warns that President Obama's proposed 'imminent threat' standard for drone strikes serves as a new unilateral justification. By expanding the definition of 'imminent,' the executive branch can continue military operations indefinitely without congressional authorization.