The drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the leader or Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force, was lawful, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz writes in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.
“The president has the constitutional authority to take military actions, short of declaring war, that he and his advisers deem necessary to protect American citizens,” writes Dershowitz.
“This authority is extremely broad, especially when the actions must, by their nature, be kept secret from the intended target.”
Soleimani was killed Jan. 3.
The Iraqi parliament followed with a vote to expel U.S. troops from Iraq. President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened sanctions against Baghdad, saying if the troops left that Iraq would have to pay Washington for the cost of the air base there.
“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build, long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it," Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
A pullout of the estimated 5,200 U.S. troops could cripple the fight against ISIS and allow its resurgence.