Why it is Biden’s call on the future of US troops in Afghanistan

Congress passed laws after 9/11 giving US presidents power to OK military force, but calls are growing to change that.

United States President Joe Biden campaigned for the White House on a pledge to “end the forever wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East”. Now, he faces a pressing test of that promise: withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by May 1 as his predecessor Donald Trump agreed with the Taliban, or continue the US and NATO military presence in the country. By authority of a 2001 US law, known as Authorisation of Use of Military Force (AUMF), the decision is Biden’s to make – even though the US Constitution vests power to declare war in Congress.