Congress rejects growing effort to replace 2001 war authorization
The US Senate today took up the post-9/11 military mandate for the first time since its enactment 16 years ago.
The US Senate today considered repealing the war authorization passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for the first time since its passage 16 years ago.
Despite a growing chorus of voices who worry that the original mandate against al-Qaeda has been twisted to justify US interventions across the Middle East and beyond, rescinding it proved too controversial in the middle of a global war against the Islamic State (IS). In the end, the amendment to the annual defense authorization bill from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., failed 61-36.
“We have fought the longest war in US history under an original authorization to go after the people who attacked us on 9/11,” Paul said on the Senate floor before today’s vote. “That war is long since over, the war has long since lost its purpose and it’s long time we have a debate in Congress about whether we should be at war or not.”
Critics, however, forcefully argued that repealing the 2001 war authorization, along with the 2002 authorization against Saddam Hussein in Iraq, was ill-timed.
