I spoke out against the Iraq War. Now Congress must repeal the Iraq War Authorization | Opinion
20 years ago this month, I stood with thousands of other advocates to speak out against the invasion of Iraq by the United States. From New Jersey to California, we gathered and marched and chanted, unified in our calling: War is not the answer.
As a survivor of the Greek civil war, I knew the horrors of war firsthand. I knew what kind of trauma the violence in Iraq would inflict on soldiers and civilians alike, and I knew I had to raise my voice against the misguided invasion, which was justified by false claims of weapons of mass destruction.
Now, as we mark two decades since the start of the war in Iraq, I feel compelled to raise my voice once again. Even though the Iraq war was declared over in 2011, a dangerous remnant of the war lives on: the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Ira. New Jersey’s lawmakers must do all they can to finally get this outdated and dangerous authorization off the books.
The 2002 Iraq AUMF was first passed by Congress to authorize the war against Saddam Hussein’s regime. It permitted the president to use the armed forces as “necessary and appropriate” to “defend U.S. national security against the continued threat posed by Iraq.” When the war officially ended, lawmakers should have repealed the AUMF, if nothing else than as an act of legislative caretaking.
But they didn’t. Now, over the course of successive administrations, the 2002 Iraq AUMF has been misused to wage acts of war that Congress never authorized. The Obama administration used the 2002 Iraq AUMF as one of the legal justifications for strikes in Iraq and Syria during the campaign against ISIS. The Trump administration also used the 2002 Iraq AUMF to justify its continued use of military force against ISIS — but in 2020, it took misuse of the authorization to new heights. In January of that year, President Trump used the 2002 Iraq AUMF to justify the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, a reckless act that took us to the precipice of yet another faraway war.
This should terrify us all. As long as the 2002 Iraq AUMF remains active, future presidents could use it to send our troops into a war that Congress never authorized. Lawmakers should take this seriously — sending constituents to war is perhaps the single most serious responsibility that Congress has, and as Article I of the Constitution makes clear, it is indeed their duty to determine if and when the U.S. goes to war.
That responsibility has been abdicated for too long. But a recently introduced bill before both chambers of Congress to repeal the 2002 Iraq AUMF could finally change that reality. This legislation has strong bipartisan support, and is also swiftly advancing, thanks in part to New Jersey’s own Sen. Robert Menendez, who helped move the bill through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this month. Sen. Cory Booker has also co-sponsored the measure, and we should applaud their leadership as the Senate prepares for a full floor vote this week.
But now is not the time for celebration. Menendez and Booker should do all they can to get this bill over the finish line in the Senate, and in the House, the New Jersey delegation should throw their support behind the House version of the bill. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and Rep. Christopher Smith in particular have an important role to play, given their presence on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. I urge them to support repeal of the 2002 Iraq AUMF, and I call on my fellow New Jersey residentss to lift up this call.
By helping enact repeal of this long-outdated authorization, lawmakers can reassert their constitutional authority over war and take a firm step towards preventing future unauthorized conflict. The cost of war is so immensely high —from a human, financial, and environmental perspective. This is a key chance to avoid paying that price needlessly in the future, and on this 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, New Jersey’s members of Congress should take the lead in seizing it.
Litsa Binder is an advocate and community organizer based in Sparta, New Jersey. She is a member of the New Jersey Advocacy Team, which partners with the Friends Committee on National Legislation to lobby Congress on issues related to peace and justice. She is also a long-time member of New Jersey Peace Action, and previously served as the president of the Sussex County League of Women Voters.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Iraq War Authorization must be repealed
