Redefining war and assassination

Joe Biden used his address on July 24 mainly to explain why he had pulled out of the race for the presidency, but he also repeated his assertion that he is "the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world." Five weeks earlier the U.S. military had tweeted that it conducted an airstrike in Syria, killing Usamah Jamal Muhammad Ibrahim al-Janabi, a senior ISIS official, which it said would disrupt ISIS's ability to resource and conduct terror attacks. The U.S., according to Biden, isn't at war with Syria, but it is occupying part of the country and conducts airstrikes there. Likewise, Israel isn't at war with Iran or Lebanon, but it apparently carried out assassinations there this week. This complicates the situation for a country like the CR, which has thrown diplomatic support behind the U.S. and Israel, without informing its citizens what the changing rules for war and assassination might mean for them as "global conflict" gets ever nearer.