(04.07.2021)
A near two-decade old act authorising US military intervention across the Middle East and beyond will appear before the Senate for a critical vote today, which could have a huge bearing on America‘s capacity to launch wars in the future.
Published Aug. 3, 2021 Updated Aug. 4, 2021, 8:46 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is open to several potential ways to tighten a much-stretched 2001 law that serves as the domestic legal basis for the open-ended “forever war” against terrorists around the world, a senior State Department official told Congress on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Aug. 3, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) is scheduled to hold a public hearing entitled, “Authorizations of Use of Force: Administration Perspectives.” The SFRC is the committee responsible for drafting and ostensibly also repealing Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs). Tuesday’s hearing comes the day before a markup by the SFRC of legislation to repeal the outdated 1991 and 2002 AUMFs.
On Tuesday, Aug. 3, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) is scheduled to hold a public hearing entitled, “Authorizations of Use of Force: Administration Perspectives.” The SFRC is the committee responsible for drafting and ostensibly also repealing Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs). Tuesday’s hearing comes the day before a markup by the SFRC of legislation to repeal the outdated 1991 and 2002 AUMFs.
(20.07.2021)
The measure would also sunset 180 days after enactment all existing AUMFs, including the 2001 AUMF passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks and upon which every consecutive administration has leaned to justify military actions in regions around the world.
Instead of the current default approval of arms sales barring a passage of a resolution of disapproval by veto-proof majorities of the House and Senate, the proposal directs Congress to proactively approve certain sales topping $14 million including those of air to ground munitions.
(13.07.2021)
It’s a strange dynamic for members of Congress, who have long seen presidents of both parties expand and sometimes abuse their war powers even after campaigning on ending conflicts in the Middle East. Nearly 20 years after the horrors of Sept. 11, GOP lawmakers are now in the awkward position of fighting to maintain a Democratic president’s authority to conduct military operations without congressional approval.
In 2001 and 2002, the U.S. Congress passed the AUMF: the Authorization for the Use of Military Force. For nearly two decades, the AUMFs have effectively become a blank check for any president, at any time, to wage endless global war without oversight or meaningful national public debate. U.S. counterterrorism operations from post-9/11 wars as a whole have expanded to at least 80 countries around the world, costing an estimated $5.9 trillion. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, injured, surveilled, and displaced, with Black, brown, and Muslim communities disproportionately impacted.
The 1991 measure was approved in the run-up to the first Gulf War, and the 1957 one was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to prevent the spread of Soviet communism in the Middle East, but it was never formally invoked. Neither serves a practical purpose today; and most lawmakers view the 2002 AUMF the same way, since the Iraq War has been over for a decade now.