In 2001 when The US authorized use of force on Al-Qaeda that, along with The 1973 war powers resolution gave the president (as in the position of president, not just Bush) unlimited ability to bomb anyone loosely associated with Al-Qaeda in perpetuity.

It's what allowed Bush, then Obama, then Trump, and then Biden, and now Trump again, to use the military as they see fit for performing military operations against basically any state and group in the middle east.