President Obama claims that under the 2001 AUMF he has the right to do whatever he wants to attack IS (or ISIS). However, there is a serious problem with him making this claim. The 2001 AUMF states "That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."
IS as a nation/organization did not exist in September 2001. Therefore as a nation/ organization, it could not have planned the attack. So action against IS, in general, is not covered by this particular law.
Now, the people who are ruling IS- those who formed it and are governing it- did exist. In fact, most of them were imprisoned by the US because of their connections to the September 11, 2001 attack. Therefore, if the president wanted to attack those people specifically under the 2001 AUMF, he could except...
...These people were in our military prisons, including the infamous Guantanamo Bay. Apparently, the president determined that these men had nothing to do with the September 11, 2001 attacks because instead of using "all necessary and appropriate force against" these IS leaders, President Obama set them all free. In other words, he pardoned them. Since he pardoned them/ determined they were not involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks, he, himself, as President officially waved his right to use this law against them. He cannot now say that he has the right to use whatever force necessary because they were involved in the attacks based upon this law.
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