Two decades after 9/11, the war on terror is not over — at least on paper.
President Joe Biden — like his predecessors — continues to rely on the rickety legal structure set up more than 20 years ago to justify strikes and military operations around the world.
In recent months, the United States has increasingly been drawn back into a thicket of low-intensity conflicts in the Middle East after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Twice this year, the administration cited war on terror era laws to justify strikes against militias affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iraq and Syria — threats that have nothing to do with Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein.