This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, November 4, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

After more than a year of bombing in Syria, President Obama says he'll now send advisors

there.

Historically, such a move has often preceded a deeper military engagement.

Gene Healy, vice president at the Cato Institute and author of the cult of the presidency,

discusses how the president decided he had the power to involve Americans in another

foreign war all without any congressional approval. The president has sent

advisors to Vietnam, I mean Syria, and what authority is the president relying on?

In the same authority he claims to, he's been claiming to rely on since the summer of 2014 when President Obama launched our

latest war in the Middle East against ISIS. That's the now 14 years old 2001 authorization for the use of

military force that Congress passed three days after 9-11. On Friday, despite the President's promises repeatedly over a period of about 15 months that

we'd have no boots on the ground in Syria, we got boots on the ground in

Syria.

A limited modified deployment of several dozen U.S. Special Forces who the White House insists are not in a

combat mission. They're in an advise and assist capacity. But 10 days ago in Iraq and advise and assist

mission, a US soldier, Joshua Wheeler, died breaching a wall in a hostage rescue mission.

And Defense Secretary Ashton Carter praised him for running to the sound of the guns

and said, I expect we'll do more of this kind of

thing so it can be tough to tell the difference between what they're calling

an advise and assist mission and a genuine combat mission.

The discussion about stretching these AUMFs well beyond what should be their breaking point hinges in part on this idea of a continuing threat

...