President Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize only months after he was inaugurated but quickly became a war president, responsible for nearly 75 percent of U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan, now is preparing to formally ask Congress to take the fight against ISIS worldwide.
That’s according to Bloomberg’s Josh Rogin, who said two senior congressional aides shared details with him.
Obama has been operating under authorizations created more than a decade ago when circumstances were vastly different and ISIS didn’t exist in the form that now threatens nations and beheads journalists and aide workers.
“The president has crafted the bill so it can engender bipartisan support on Capitol Hill while still preserving an enormous amount of flexibility on the battlefield without micromanagement from Congress, one senior Republican Senate aide said,” Rogin reported.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said recently he believed it would “require substantial effort” to get through Congress, but “Obama is already engaged in the fight against Islamic State” and his political advisory team “genuinely wants congressional buy-in.”
Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at a time when critics pointed out he had virtually no accomplishments. Since then, polls have indicated 55 percent of Americans believe he does not deserve such recognition.
“Not only does Obama not deserve the global peace award now, but Americans also think that he never should have received it in the first place,” the Daily Caller said.
There even have been assorted demands for Obama to return the 2009 prize, but the rules set up by the Nobel Foundation forbid revocation.
CNS News reported last year that of the 2,232 American fatalities in the Afghan war, 1,663 – 74.5 percent – happened on Obama’s watch.
The report from Rogin addressed White House strategy to propose to Congress new legislation that would formally give him the authority to pursue war.
He noted one of the factors is that there are “no geographic limitations, so the administration would be free to expand the war to other countries.”
But Rogin reported it would place limits on the types and numbers of U.S. ground forces that can be deployed.
The request, Rogin reported, is being prepared under pressure from Capitol Hill.
Previously, the White House has cited a 2001 authorization regarding al-Qaida and another from 2002 regarding Iraq.
Rogin reported: “If enacted, the president’s AUMF could effectively constrain the next president from waging a ground war against the Islamic State group until at least 2018. Aides warned that the White House may tweak the final details before releasing the document publicly. In advance of the release, top White House and State Department officials have been briefing lawmakers and Congressional staffers about their proposed legislation. Two senior congressional aides relayed the details to me.”
The authorization would, the report said, allow Obama to send advisers, special operations forces and search and rescue teams.
It also would allow Obama to attack al-Nusra Front or Baathist elements in Iraq, the report said.
Rogin said the White House didn’t comment on the details.
Credit to WND
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/obama-seeks-permission-to-go-global-against-isis/#EQf3CPGg8qy34CQx.99
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