The House of Representatives voted to repeal the 2002 Authorization of Military Force against Iraq this week. Senator Chuck Schumer said he would work to pass the same in the upper chamber, to “eliminate the danger of a future administration reaching back into the legal dustbin to use it as a justification for military adventurism.”
It makes sense. President Barack Obama cited the 2002 AUMF as his mandate for dealing with the Islamic State. His successor, Donald Trump, used long-ago AUMFs to justify a strike on Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani. It’s clear that these particular missions were never contemplated by Congress in 2002.
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