One more try.
You could "authorize" your daughter to stay out until 2:00 AM if necessary, but you didn't tell her she had to.
You could "authorize" your daughter to spend $20 on a movie if she had to, but you aren't telling her to spend that $20.
As I remember that occasion, in order to get the resolution it was stressed to the public that it was not a mandate for war, but a negotiating tool.
If it were more than an "authorization", it would have been called a "declaration", don't you think?
Arf