US Senate votes to repeal Iraq war authorizations, 20 years after invasion

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US Senate voted Wednesday to repeal Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq, two decades after America invaded the country and overthrew its longtime leader.

The 66-30 vote saw 18 Republican cross the aisle to join the vast majority of Democrats in support of ending the 2002 and 1991 authorizations. The matter now heads to the Republican-held House of Representatives where its fate remains unclear.

Introduced by Tim Kaine and Todd Young, the barely two-page legislation cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 8.

The bill seeks to reassert Congress' constitutionally-mandated authority to declare and end wars, and bolster the US-Iraq relationship by closing open-ended authorizations used to carry out US military activities in the Middle Eastern nation.

Kaine said the authorizations are "outdated and unnecessary," calling the Senate's vote an "important step to prevent any president from abusing these AUMFs."

"I've long believed that Congress should reassert our constitutional role in decisions as solemn as whether and when to repeal to send our nation's service members into harm's way, which is why I've pushed to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force," Kaine said in a statement.

"I urge the House to pass our bill and get it to the President's desk to be signed into law," he added.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Young, the Republican co-sponsor of the bill, said 20 years ago Iraq was a US enemy but has since transformed into a "strategic partner, an ally in advancing stability across the Middle East."

"A lot has changed in the last 20 years, and yet according to our laws, according to our laws, today we are still are at war with Iraq. This isn't just the result of an oversight. It's an intentional abdication of this body, of its constitutional role in America's national security," he said. "Allowing it to continue is a strategic mistake."

Kaine and Young's legislation does not touch a 2001 AUMF authorizing the US to continue operations against terror groups worldwide, which was passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the country.

March 19 marked 20 years since US warplanes began a campaign of overwhelming bombing in Iraq known as "shock and awe" that set the stage for American forces to invade, ultimately toppling the Iraqi military, and with it, Saddam Hussein's government.

The war marked Washington's second in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and led to the ouster of Hussein -- Iraq's longtime ruler who was hanged after being found guilty of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court.

Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) touted by the Bush administration as the impetus for the war were never found, however. The claims made before the American public and the UN marked "one of the most public—and most damaging—intelligence failures in recent American history," the US government determined.