Statement: SFRC Makes Right Choice to Repeal 2002 AUMF. Senate Must Follow Suit.
Last Updated on August 16, 2021.
WASHINGTON — Win Without War Senior Washington Director Erica Fein released the following statement regarding today’s Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (SFRC) vote to report S.J.Res. 10 out of committee:
“Today’s vote brings us one step closer to doing what should have been done long ago: repealing the outdated and dangerous 1991 and 2002 AUMFs. The Senate must follow suit.
“It is nothing short of absurd that the authorization for a war that never should have happened, and which formally ended ten years ago, remains on the books today. The continued existence of these outdated laws does nothing to make us, or the world, safer. Quite the opposite: it only heightens the chance of future presidents abusing these laws — as Donald Trump did to justify his illegal assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani — and risks dragging us into dangerous new forever wars.
“Today’s vote follows yesterday’s hearing, which saw members of the Biden administration and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle agree that keeping the Iraq war authorizations on the books is not only unnecessary for U.S. national security, but a liability to it.
“The Biden administration, the House of Representatives, the people of the United States, and now the SFRC, all agree: repealing the 2002 AUMF is a necessary step toward reining in the president’s expansive war powers and ending our nation’s endless wars. We urge the Senate to do its duty and see the overdue repeal of these, and all outdated war authorizations, including the 2001 AUMF, through.”
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Win Without War is a diverse network of activists and national organizations working for progressive foreign policy in the United States.