The content below comes from the newsletter This Week in War Powers News, provided by the Committee for Responsible Foreign Policy.
Nation-Building Abroad Eroded Pennsylvanians’ Trust in Institutions
During the founding of the United States, Pennsylvania earned the nickname “keystone” for its essential role—geographic, economic, and political—in winning American independence. Two and a half centuries later, Pennsylvania maintained its Keystone State status in the now concluded war in Afghanistan.
In 2013, after the peak of the insurgency, state Adjutant Gen. Wesley Craig said that Pennsylvania endured “by far” the most National Guard deaths of any state. In the past two decades, according to tracker icasualties.org, the state has seen 93 U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan in addition to Guardsmen, along with more than 400 wounded. READ MORE
Peter Meijer, Who Flew to Afghanistan This Week, Says Congress Needs To Reclaim War Powers Authority
Congress needs to “reclaim its authority over war powers” to avoid another catastrophe on the scale of Thursday’s deadly Afghanistan terror attack, a Republican congressman said Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan spoke out after at least 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans were killed at the Kabul airport.
“Tonight, I grieve with the families. Tomorrow, we work to do everything we can to ensure no other family suffers a tragedy like this,” Meijer wrote on Twitter. READ MORE
Kabul Terror Attacks Throw Curveball Into Congressional Attempts To Limit Biden’s War Powers
President Joe Biden’s new mission to hold the planners of the deadly terror attacks at the Kabul airport accountable throws an unexpected wrinkle into congressional attempts to limit the president’s war powers — something Biden himself has voiced support for in the past. READ MORE
How the US Created a World of Endless War
On 23 May 2013, the peace activist Medea Benjamin attended a speech by President Barack Obama at Fort McNair in Washington DC, where he defended his administration’s use of armed drones in counter-terrorism. During his speech, Benjamin interrupted the president to criticize him for not having closed Guantánamo Bay and for pursuing military solutions over diplomatic ones. She was swiftly ejected by military police and the Secret Service. The Washington Post later dismissed her as a “heckler”. Obama himself had been more reflective at the event, engaging with her criticisms, which led to even deeper self-criticism of his own. It was the moment of greatest moral clarity about war during a presidency that did more than any other to bring its endless and humane American form fully into being. READ MORE
