The Biden White House has signaled no discontent with the Pentagon’s use of that “self-defense” exception to justify a practice of essentially providing close air support for partner forces that go out on missions and then get into trouble, even if no Americans are present and at risk.
The domestic legal basis for airstrikes in both Somalia and Afghanistan is the 2001 war law, known as the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or A.U.M.F. While the Taliban, as Al Qaeda’s hosts, were always understood to be covered by it, the Obama administration in 2016 added Al Shabab to the war by deeming it an associated force of Al Qaeda.
In opening Tuesday’s hearing, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, noted that he had voted for the 2001 law after the Sept. 11 attacks and said, “We never could have imagined it being used as a justification for airstrikes in Somalia or against groups that did not even exist at the time.”
The 2001 war law is broadly worded and contains no geographical limits. But efforts in Congress to update it have faltered for years amid sharp disagreements over how to replace it.
