WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said the war authorization proposal he unveiled Wednesday strikes the “necessary balance,” giving him the flexibility to fight Islamic State militants without setting the nation up for another open-ended war in the Middle East.
Obama sent a draft Authorization for the Use of Military Force to Congress earlier in the day, outlining the limits he wants in the military campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS or ISIL. His proposal would limit military action against the group to three years and allow for limited U.S. ground troops in situations involving rescue operations or intelligence sharing. It wouldn’t put any geographic limits on the military campaign; instead, it would limit military action to countering the Islamic State and associated forces. The AUMF itself would sunset in three years as well.
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“The reality is that without a sunset on the old authorization, it doesn’t limit this administration or the next in any appreciable manner,” he said. “That’s a key issue in the Democratic Caucus.”
