Political Quotes

“the Senate today has finally voted to repeal two outdated and obsolete authorizations for the use of military force--those that launched two wars against the Iraqi Government of Saddam Hussein, enacted into law in 1991 and 2002. Yet this is not the only action we must take to protect our national security. A third AUMF, which Congress enacted in 2001 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on our country by the terrorist organization al- Qaida, is also outdated and ought to be repealed. This authorization was fully justified and necessary at the time, and I voted in favor of it. It was sadly necessary to go to war in Afghanistan to remove the very real threat that al-Qaida posed from its sanctuary there. But, as I have repeatedly argued in successive Congresses since 2014, this AUMF, too, is now obsolete. We ought to repeal it and replace it with a new AUMF that more accurately reflects the threats our country faces today. Four Presidents from both parties have used the 2001 AUMF to target groups that did not even exist on 9/11/2001 in countries such as Yemen and Somalia, far from the battlefield of Afghanistan. Presidents have used this AUMF in ways that those of us in Congress who voted for it could never have imagined 22 years ago.…”