President Barack Obama plans to seek Congressional endorsement for new authority to combat the ISIS operating in Iraq and Syria, as the White House looks to work in a new political environment where Republicans have full legislative control of Congress.
The new authority, if given to the White House by the Republican-dominated Capitol Hill, will replace the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, against al-Qaeda and the 2002 authority against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
“The idea is to right-size and update whatever authorization Congress provides to suit the current fight rather than previous fights,” Obama said in his first news conference, as he indicated his willingness to work with Congress after this week’s rout of the Democrats in the midterm polls.
“We now have a different type of enemy; the strategy is different,” Obama said. “It makes sense for us to make sure that the authorization . . . reflects what we perceive to be not just our strategy over the next two or three months, but our strategy going forward.”
Obama has invited Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III to the White House on Friday to speak to congressional leaders “about how our fight against ISIL (ISIS or IS) is proceeding, to answer questions, and to assure that Congress is fully briefed on what we’re doing there.”
“It’ll be a process of listening to members of Congress, as well as us presenting what we think needs to be the set of authorities” for the ongoing operation, Obama said. “It may just be a process of us getting it started now. It may carry over into the next Congress.”
According to the Washington Post, although al-Qaeda has repudiated the ISIS and the two groups have no current connection, the administration has said the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs are appropriate legal justification because the Islamic State has its origin in an al-Qaeda affiliate formed in Iraq a decade ago.
When questioned if the United States was “winning” in the battle against the Islamic State, Obama said that “it’s too early to say.” He recalled that, “as I said at the outset of the ISIL campaign, this is going to be a long-term plan.”
He noted that the US focus in Syria is “not to solve the entire Syria situation,” in which fractious, US-backed rebel forces are fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and an array of militant groups.
“Our first focus . . . is to drive ISIL out of Iraq,” Obama said. “And what we’re doing in Syria is first and foremost in service of reducing ISIL’s capacity to resupply and send troops and then run back over the Syrian border. . . . That is our number one mission.”
