The US Senate has overwhelmingly rejected an appeal introduced by Republican Senator Rand Paul to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) - legislation that was used to justify America's war in Afghanistan, as well as military operations in at least 22 countries.
Senators rejected the amendment 86-9, with only four lawmakers each from both the Democrats and Republicans supporting the legislation. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders also voted for the repeal effort.
"We have not yet had that substantive discussion,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was cited as saying before the vote in the Senate.
While lawmakers in both parties acknowledged that at some point, the 2001 authorization for the War on Terror might be narrowed in its clout, they argued against repealing it entirely
Sen. Rand Paul originally introduced the amendment to mark the 20th anniversary of the Iraq campaign, launched in March 2003 by the United States on false pretenses. The invasion and occupation led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and combatants.
"Today, I offered the US Senate a chance to repeal the 9/11 2001 authorization for war to reclaim our constitutional power and send a message to the world that we are a nation of peace. We should have risen above symbolism and … shown our respect for the Constitution, our fealty to the rule of law, and our sincere desire that peace, not perpetual war, be our legacy, ” Paul said in a statement after the vote on March 22.
By leaving the 2001 AUMF intact, Congress is holding on to an authorization that approves "war everywhere, all the time," Paul said.
The GOP senator vowed to continue his efforts to get the authorization repealed, arguing that Congress, not the president, should wield war-making powers under the Constitution.
The AUMF in question was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush on September 18, 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when Al-Qaeda* militants slammed hijacked airliners into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
The bill was meant to approve military action against the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks. In October of that year, the US launched its invasion of Afghanistan, explaining its move by highlighting that Osama bin Laden had masterminded the attacks, and that the Taliban** had offered sanctuary to members of al-Qaeda. However, the Taliban** never recognized the US claims that the group had any ties to the 2001 attacks.
Furthermore, a broad interpretation of the wording of the authorization was used to to justify operations targeting not only Al-Qaeda, but "associated forces," such as Daesh***, and has been resorted to by America's presidents from then on to justify numerous interventions overseas.
In the case of Iraq, the US insisted that the then-leader of the country, Saddam Hussein, was hiding weapons of mass destruction, and collaborating with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group. All these claims were proven to be blatant lies - part of a web of manipulated and fabricated data used to condone military intervention.
Senator Paul also co-sponsored a bill to revoke two other AUMFs which would symbolically end the Gulf and Iraq Wars. Lead co-sponsors, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, first introduced their legislation in 2019, with the bipartisan bill clearing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and facing a vote on final passage sometime next week.
Congress has a moral and constitutional duty to repeal the AUMFs so that future administrations cannot use them as a "blank check" to send US servicemembers into harm’s way, Kaine said in the statement.
*Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries
**The Taliban is an organization under UN sanctions for terrorism.
***Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries