Speaking today on ABC’s This Week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R – KY) dismissed the efforts of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R – WI) to explore a possible Authorization of the Use of Military Force (AUMF) for the ongoing ISIS war, saying he didn’t see it as feasible.
McConnell went on to say he “couldn’t imagine” passing any AUMF in the Senate that President Obama would sign, saying any such authorization would “tie the hands of the next president” on the war, saying the next president will have to clean up the mess.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 forbids the US from entering any armed conflict longer than 60 days without an explicit vote authorizing it from Congress. The ISIS war has been ongoing for over a year and a half with no such vote ever taking place.
President Obama has taken a surprisingly inconsistent position on AUMF votes, at times “demanding” Congress pass one to prove they support his war, and at other times going out of his way to block such resolutions from reaching a vote.
Despite being conducted illegally for the last year and a half, there is no sign of the war ending, and the AUMF is seen by the administration as at best a rubber stamp for their war, but one which is only useful if extremely vague on the details.
I believe it was John Yoo who came up with the idea that the survival of the state justifies anything. He should be in prison, not teaching law.
I’m pretty sure that if Obama decided that without an AUMF he should start pulling all the “advisors and trainers” out of Iraq and Syria, Mitch and his host of sycophants would start screaming and moaning that Obama isn’t protecting us from the bad guys. Then perhaps the Repugs in Congress might breakdown and pass a new AUMF.
But then again, I have been wrong before.
Absolutely pull the advisors trainers and the like from the region, but how would the Pentagon and the CIA explain to Al Qaeda oops I MEAN AL NUSRA, ( THAT NAME CHANGE IS A REAL NUISANCE), I suppose the same way they did when they did it to Osama Bin Ladin after Charlie Wilsons War!
Of course there would be the problem if they had an AUMF against ISIS would that mean they would actually HAVE to bomb the Saudis this time as well as Bahrain and other Gulf States and Turkey because this time around the funding trail hasn’t been as invisible as in the past, Where are all those NEW Toyotas coming from? Which countries Presidents son is buying Stolen oil from ISIS?