Saying "no" to the 08 peace candidate's request for war powers

 

Well, maybe not yet...

I'd glimpsed the acronym AUMF a couple times lately as I scanned the news, pronouncing it OAF or something similar and not quite grasping its current significance in the Obama Administration. Think about it. Barack Obama won the 08 primary and arguably the presidency on the basis of his opposition to the Iraq War and his pledge to eliminate OAF,  I mean AUMF, which stands for the 2001 Authorization for the use of Military Force. So don't blame me for not quite getting it that President Obama has just asked Congress to authorize the U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State on the basis of AUMF.

So let's all give a shout out to Democratic senators this morning for their proposed legislation to repeal that dangerous authorization that never expired.

The Huffington Post's Jennifer Bendery reports:

Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the bill. It would terminate the 2001 AUMF in three years and clarify that Congress "never intended and did not authorize a perpetual war" by passing that authorization.

Their legislation comes days after Obama sent Congress a new AUMF tailored to the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIL or ISIS. While his proposal calls for limits on duration and ground troops, it does nothing to rein in the 2001 AUMF -- the same authority Obama has been using for the past six months to fight ISIS. That means, regardless of whether Congress passes his new AUMF, the old authorization's broad war authority remains available to Obama and future presidents.

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