In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Congress adopted an “Authorization for the Use of Military Force” which authorized the president to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks and those who “harbored” them. This vote has been used to justify the military intervention in Afghanistan, and also to justify a number of drone strikes, commando raids and other military action since then.

Gene Healey looks at what journalist Gregory Johnson calls “the most dangerous sentence in American history” and reports on efforts in Congress to repeal the open-ended authorization @ http://reason.com/archives/2014/05/20/lets-end-congresss-blanket-authorization