Sen. Rand Paul is entirely right that the AUMF passed right after 9/11 needs to be repealed. It has been the blank check and permission to endless war Rep. Barbara Lee warned us against when she was the lone vote against it in 2001. The media does us no favors. Her vote was not a pacifist one, she supported fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, but opposed giving an endless blank check to any President. So far three administrations and 16 years later, we are still using the same resolution which has now morphed into justifying military action in 12 different countries. Including our intervention in Yemen, the drone war in Pakistan, and interventions across the African continent and even the Philippines. It’s even bene used to justify military action against ISIS-which is an entity that did not exist at the start of this fight.
Sen. Paul is right. Congress should do it’s job and debate a new more limited resolution and figure out exactly what commitments are worth American blood and treasure and which ones are not. Giving any President, especially this one, a blank check to do what he pleases with our troops as long as he says terrorism is abrogating our constitutional checks and balances on presidential power. It is high time for the anti-war left to join with Paul in this fight. Every Democratic Senator, including the 20 or so considering presidential runs, should stand by his side. I’ve called our two.
I would agree with this, but the fly in the ointment is Paul himself. He can’t be trusted to follow through.
Fair, but until a Democrat joins him he gets to play his Lone Ranger act all my his lonesome. Seems like low hanging fruit for our safe delegation members. I give Jim McGovern a ton of credit as one of the few consistent progressives on this issue no matter which party was in power.
Warren’s in.
https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/907787602778050561
Awesome
Paul’s bill voted down, 61-36.