Not necessarily. To repeat myself:
US Constitution, Article I, Section 8: Powers of Congress:
Enumerated powers
The Congress shall have power. ... .
To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises. ... .
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations. ... .
Congress can declare war, but it is the President, as Commander-in-Chief, who must prosecute the war, via the armed forces. Similarly, the Congress sets the laws and penalties against piracy- and violations of the Law of Nations- but it is the Chief Executive who will direct the action required thereof, as, for instance, ordering the launching of several dozen TLAM missiles from Navy ships.
The violations of the Law of Nations in this case would be The Geneva Gas Protocol and Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, the grounds for the conviction and hanging of one Saddam Hussein.
Do individual congressmen return home to their districts to collect taxes? No, of course not, they write the tax code, and the Executive Branch does the dirty work. Same deal with raising the price for the use of chemical weapons in Syria as 30,000 AMERICAN TROOPS ARE BEING READIED TO GO THERE.
It’s the authorization they are operating under because they say it’s what the’re operating under. They don’t say anything about piracies and law of nations.
Did congress decide there was an "offense against the law of nations"? Or did Trump make that decision?
Did Congress decide the "punishment" for that offense? Or Did Trump make that decision?
I don't think this clause gives the President the authorization you think it does. Under that clause, the President only has the power to carry out the punishment that Congress decides on.