(December 14, 2021)

Just days after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the U.S. Congress passed the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). Section 2(a) of the 2001 AUMF authorizes the President “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, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States.” Under this AUMF, Congress relinquished its constitutionally assigned war powers in the fight against “terrorism,” ceding to the president its responsibility to decide whether, when, and where the United States chooses war. The 2001 AUMF is still in effect today.

The president must report to Congress within 48 hours a situation in which U.S. forces are introduced into “hostilities” or “imminent hostilities.”3 This is mandated by the 1973 War Powers Resolution, established by Congress in the final stages of the Vietnam War to forestall any president from taking the country to war without congressional authorization or awareness. Since the passing of the 2001 AUMF, the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have referenced this authorization in their reporting to Congress on U.S. military hostilities in a growing number of countries to fight a growing
number of militant groups, including Al Qaeda and other groups that government officials subsequently identified as arising from it, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Shabaab in Somalia. All four administrations have cited the 2001 AUMF while using vague language to describe the locations of operations, failing to accurately describe the full scope of activities in many places, and in some cases simply failing to report on counterterrorism hostilities.