The content below comes from the newsletter This Week in War Powers News, provided by the Committee for Responsible Foreign Policy.
Five Senators Threaten to Derail Repeal of 2002 AUMF: Why Their Timing and Claims Are So Wrong
Following the House’s passage – on a broadly bipartisan basis – of legislation to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq (2002 AUMF), five members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (a minority of the minority) are seeking to delay its companion bill’s movement out of committee and onto the Senate floor. In a letter to the Committee’s Chairman Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the group of five, which notably does not include the Committee’s Ranking Member — Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI), Bill Hagerty (R-TI), Mitt Romney (R-MI), M. Michael Rounds (R-SD), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) — purport to need further study of the issues. Respectfully, that time has long since passed. READ MORE
Returning US “War Powers” from the White House to Congress Stalled in Senate
Republican Senators are delaying an upper House committee’s vote on the repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, (AUMF), the so-called wide-ranging war powers that allowed the war in Iraq, and other military actions.
The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee had planned to debate and vote on the repeal of the AUMF on Wednesday, but it was put off after five members – Senators Mitt Romney, Mike Rounds, Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson and Bill Hagerty – requested a public hearing and classified briefing. READ MORE
Afghanistan is Disintegrating Fast as Biden’s Troop Withdrawal Continues
Earlier this week, a lone Taliban gunman with a red skull cap and a rifle sauntered up to the gates of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan’s fourth largest city, and snapped a selfie.
The last time the Taliban controlled the city was 20 years ago, when they left hundreds of captives in steel trucking containers to suffocate and die in the scorching desert heat.
Now, the militants are back at the city gates once again, as part of a lightning offensive against Afghan government forces that has set alarm bells ringing from Kabul to Washington. READ MORE
