Passed after 9/11, the AUMF Still Serves
To Justify Today’s Undeclared Wars
Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com
(June 8, 2023) — A group of Republican senators on Thursday introduced a bill to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that was passed in the wake of the September 11th attacks and is still being used to justify wars today.
The End Endless Wars Act was introduced by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), JD Vance (R-OH), and Mike Braun (R-IN). The legislation would repeal the 2001 AUMF 180 days after its enactment.
“If there exists any desire to reclaim our Constitutional power and send a message to the world that we are a nation of peace, Congress should pass this bill and repeal the 2001 Authorization for war. After all, the 2001 AUMF never intended to authorize worldwide war, all the time, everywhere, forever,” said Sen. Paul, according to a press release from his office.
Sen. Lee said the 2001 AUMF has “become one of the many instruments of misuse, and it is time for members of Congress to end this authority that keeps us in endless wars.” Sen. Braun said that no president should “have the authority to singlehandedly wage war” and called to “return this power to the people and repeal this authorization that has far outlived its’ purpose.”
The 2001 AUMF currently authorizes war in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and several other countries. There’s been a push in Congress to repeal the 2002 AUMF that was used for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but that authorization is not used today, and repealing it won’t end any current wars.
In March, the Senate voted to repeal the 2002 AUMF and the 1991 AUMF used for the Gulf War. At the time, Sen. Paul attempted to include an amendment to the legislation to repeal the 2001 AUMF, but it failed in a vote of 9-86.
Russian Official Says Ukraine Was Ready
to Sign Peace Deal Early in the War
But Gave Up Due to US Pressure
Moscow approved Ukraine’s proposals ‘in principle’ during short-lived negotiations
(June 8, 2023) — Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said Thursday that Ukraine was ready to sign a peace deal with Russia in the early days of the war but gave up on negotiations due to US pressure.
“Had it not been for the US pressure on those whom they installed at the head of Ukraine, this situation would have not happened. Even the Ukrainian leaders themselves were ready for signing a peace treaty and gave Russia written proposals that we, in principle, approved,” Patrushev said. He said there are “interested parties in this conflict,” mainly the US and the UK.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held in-person talks at the end of March 2022 in Istanbul and followed up with virtual consultations. According to the account of former US officials speaking to Foreign Affairs, the two sides agreed on the framework for a tentative deal that would have involved a Russian withdrawal in exchange for Ukrainian neutrality.
But in April 2022, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled to Kyiv and urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to negotiate with Russia. According to a report from Ukrainska Pravda, Johnson said even if Zelensky was ready to sign a deal with Putin, Kyiv’s Western backers were not.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, Johnson’s position was that of “the collective West, which back in February [2022] had suggested Zelensky should surrender and flee, now felt that Putin was not really as powerful as they had previously imagined, and that here was a chance to ‘press him.’” The report said Russia was open to a Putin-Zelensky meeting at the time, but that possibility came to a halt after Johnson’s visit.
Then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet was trying to mediate between Putin and Zelensky in March 2022 and gave a similar account of the West’s position. He said the US and its allies “blocked” his mediation effort and that he thought there was a “legitimate decision by the West to keep striking Putin” and not negotiate.
After peace talks were scuttled in April 2022, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he expected the conflict to end after the Istanbul talks but then realized some countries in NATO wanted to prolong the war to “weaken” Russia. A few days after Cavusoglu’s comments, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin admitted that one of the US’s goals in supporting Ukraine is to see Russia “weakened.”
The Biden administration has not dropped its opposition to peace talks as Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently rejected the idea of a ceasefire and vowed to continue building up Ukraine’s military.
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