The New York Times quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Nonresident Senior Fellow for Military Affairs and National Security Policy Nora Bensahel on the Congressional debate to authorize the use of military force, and whether a vote is likely soon:
Congressional authorization of force generally applies to a specific nation, like Iraq, not to a broad region or a mobile threat like the one the Islamic State presents. “This is a very tight rope for the Obama administration to be walking,” said Nora Bensahel, a military policy analyst at American University’s School of International Service.
“When the initial draft was sent to the Hill, the big criticism was that it was too open-ended in terms of what he would authorize,” Ms. Bensahel said. “And he said, ‘We just want support that reflects a new era of a constant and ongoing shift in threat.’ That is not a political comment. It reflects the fact that radical Islamic terror groups have been morphing and changing.”
“The debate is not something that individual citizens will get excited about,” she added, “but it is a fundamental part of our political process.”