The Senate on Wednesday approved legislation repealing the 2002 authorization for the use of force in Iraq, taking a key step toward closing one of the costliest chapters in U.S. history more than 20 years after President George W. Bush decided to launch the invasion.
Democrats were joined by some Republicans in favor of repeal, a largely symbolic move that supporters say is intended to reassert Congress’s authority to wage war in the future. The bill also repealed the 1991 authorization for the use of military force in the Gulf War.
The Iraq War was a disastrous conflict that cost tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. His reasoning was based on misinformation, and many lawmakers now believe the Bush administration lied to Congress and the public when it claimed that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Presidents have also used the 2002 authorization to wage war around the world. For example, President Donald Trump’s administration cited it in 2020 to justify the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.
The Iraq war authorization debate has divided the Senate Republican conference. GOP senators who voted at the time to send the United States to war, as well as national security hawks, opposed its repeal on the grounds that it would further embolden Iran in the region.
“Our terrorist enemies are not ceasing their war against us. And when we deploy our military in harm’s way, we must give them all the support and legal authority we can,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement Tuesday.
Some senior Republicans continued to defend the decision to go to war in Iraq.
That view is not shared by the GOP’s newest arrivals in Congress, though it reflects a changed party under former President Donald Trump that increasingly questions US involvement abroad, including in Ukraine.
The legislation passed by the Senate on Wednesday leaves intact the broad 2001 authorization for the use of military force that every presidential administration since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has used to wage war in more than a dozen countries. An amendment offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to revoke that authorization received only nine votes.
An amendment offered by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that would cancel future congressional authorizations for military force after two years, forcing another vote on the issue if necessary, won more votes — 19 votes — but did not was still adopted. . In particular, more Republicans voted Lee’s Amendment vs. Democrats.
However, the chances of repealing the 2002 Iraq War and 1991 Gulf War sanctions in the Republican-controlled House are less clear. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took no position, but She said earlier this month he believed the bill “has a clear opportunity to be debated”.
House Republicans could decide to change the legislation, which would require another Senate vote before going to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The White House indicated that Biden would sign the bill if it reached his desk and that it would have “no impact on current US military operations,” according to an administration policy statement.
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