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Are We At War With Terrorists?

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Are we at war with terrorists? What about the “Global War on Terrorism”? That sure was a catch phrase in the early 2000s. Don’t we currently have troops in Iraq and Syria? Aren’t we at war with ISIL? All of the answers to these questions are very complicated. We are not currently, legally, at war with ISIL. But why aren’t we? I thought we were dropping tens of thousands of bombs on Raqqa? On September 18th, 2001, Congress enacted the “AUMF”, Authorization for the use of Military Force. The AUMF was at the request of President Bush, in response to the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. The AUMF granted the President the authority “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those… he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11th, 2001, or harbored [those who did].” (www.acslaw.org) Al Qaeda was identified as the terrorist group that was responsible for the attack and thus was targeted by the United States Military for the next fourteen years. The AUMF has been referred to as the global war on terror, but that would be an untrue nickname, as the AUMF only authorizes force against those responsible for the September 11th attacks. Osama Bin Laden was identified as the leader of Al Qaeda and subsequently was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2nd, 2011. So far, conflict in the Philippines, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Djibouti

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