The White House yesterday released a notification to Congress, a War Powers Act notification, which is an update on the deployments of U.S. military forces in the so-called war on terrorism, the authority for which mainly flows from the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force. Among other things, we learn the following from this notification:
• U.S. forces remain postured outside of Afghanistan to respond to any threats that may arise from that country.
• U.S. forces are active in both Syria and Iraq “by, with, and through local partners” against ISIS and al Qaeda. “A small presence of United States Armed Forces remains in strategically significant locations in Syria to conduct operations, in partnership with local, vetted ground forces, to address continuing terrorist threats emanating from Syria,” it says, without acknowledging the U.S. regime-change policy towards Damascus.
• A small number of United States military personnel are deployed to Yemen to conduct operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS.
• There are 2,936 U.S. troops in Jordan “to support Defeat-ISIS operations, to enhance Jordan’s security, and to promote regional stability.”
