The Patriot Post® · Obama's Request for War Against ISIL a Farce

For a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a hippie peace activist of the ‘70s, Barack Obama and John Kerry are pretty hawkish. Sometimes. Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and asked for an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that would give Obama the ability to bomb nations besides Iraq and Syria and to deploy ground troops to fight the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant. “U.S. military forces will not be deployed to conduct ground combat operations against ISIL,” Kerry said. “That does not mean we should pre-emptively bind the hands of the commander in chief – or our commanders in the field – in responding to scenarios and contingencies that are impossible to foresee.” Currently, Obama uses the AUMF created after 9/11, authorizing George W. Bush to hunt down al-Qaida, to wage his war against ISIL. But his request of Congress destroys the reason even to ask for an AUMF because it wouldn’t define America’s goals in the fight, rather, it gives the next administration the authority to send Americans to fight in the Middle East again, expanding the conflict. As John Kerry said, “Osama bin Laden started this in 9/11/2001, and he has continued it in abstentia, obviously, though what al-Qaida does. ISIL – Daesh – is an extension of al-Qaida. It’s part of the same thing. … This is the fight of a generation.” So here’s the question: How far are we willing to go to defeat ISIL? Bombing runs? A troop surge?