Political Quotes

“this week, the Senate debates whether to end two authorizations of the use of military force against Iraq. Congress passed the first authorization in 1991 for the original Gulf war, a strategic and narrowly scoped campaign to liberate Kuwait and punish Saddam Hussein's unlawful aggression. Congress passed the second one in 2002, paving the way for the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq and the biggest blunder in the history of American foreign policy. We have spent far too little time on this floor considering the legacy of both wars, and I want to thank Senators Kaine and Senator Young for this long overdue debate about the constitutional responsibility of Congress in our foreign policy. Most Americans, I think, would be surprised to learn that Congress has much of a role in foreign policy because for virtually my entire time in the Senate, there has been very little evidence that we have played one. The Founders envisioned a very specific role for Congress, and it wasn't to micromanage foreign policy. They knew matters of war and peace required a level of coherence and action at odds with a legislative branch that, by design, often moves slowly and encourages disagreement and some would say sometimes even incoherence. But if the Founders had a reason for giving the Executive broad flexibility to conduct war, they also had a reason for giving Congress sole power to declare war. They wanted to make it hard to start a war, not easy.…”