February 11, 2015
Nathan Larson
Soc 202-01
Blog post 1

                                             Obama's Dual View of War Power Seeks Limits and Leeway:

                                      President Obama has submitted a request to Congress to attempt and limit the executive powers that have previously allowed presidents to send in substantial ground troops to foreign nations. He has done this to prevent another prolonged ground war such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has however requested the continued use of airstrikes and the use of special operations forces if needed to combat ISIS forces when appropriate. The strange thing about his request is that it leaves a back door for the president to deploy large combat forces if there is an extreme need, this seems rather contradictory, but it is designed to not completely limit his executive war powers. Essentially Obama is trying to insure that there is no another invasion force equivalent to Iraq in 2003, but he is not ruling out the possibility of ground forces in the near future. This seems to be in attempt to satisfy Republicans who wan't more immediate action, and Democrats who want us too stay out of foreign conflict as much as possible.




Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us/obama-war-authorization-congress.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0