Dear Congress,
First off, I am not here to give you grief, you already get enough of that. being a public representative can be a tough and lonely job. Trying to balance what is right, what you know in your heart is right against what your party wants to do, and sometimes even bringing you in conflict with the wishes of your constituents. But this is what “we the people” elected you to do. We can’t all vote on the many critical issues facing our country and ourselves, and we have no choice but to trust your knowledge and moral compass to do the right thing on behalf of all of us. This is what you signed up for.
September 11, 2001 was a watershed in American history. Like December 7, 1941, it was a slap in the face to an entire nation, a heinous assault without due cause or provocation. And just as on December 7, 1941, the country united in response to the outrage inflicted upon us, and mobilized to respond. This time was different though, it was not a nation state that declared war on us, but rather a loose, renegade group without preset borders and a twisted ideolory who did the deed. The President asked for an Authorization for the Use of Military Force to be signed by the Congress, and it was. I grew up, and came of draft age in the declining years of the Vietnam War, and I’m old enough to know a just war from a political war. Personally, for what it’s worth, I believe that the AUMF signed in 2001 was just and correct. This nation demanded that those who sought to bring us to our knees be brought to theirs instead.
The original 2001 AUMF both succeeded and failed at the same time. The Taliban in Afghanistan was shown to be hiding and shielding Osama bin Laden. As a result of direct US and allied military action, the Taliban was toppled from power and forced to retreat. But Osama bin Laden was not captured or killed, and Al Qaeda was not defeated. They disappeared into one hole and popped up again elsewhere to continue their fight. And while driven from power, the Taliban was not defeated either, hence our nations longest uninterrupted war.
But there was one fatal flaw in the 2001 AUMF. As I pointed out earlier, when we went to war in 1941, the declaration of war was specifically against Japan. When they surrendered in 1945, that war was officially over, and the AUMF expired. But in 2001, how do you declare war against a group, or an ideology? The 2001 AUMF at its core was nebulous, with it we were fighting the “terrorists” that attacked us, with no clear vision of exactly who the terrists were, who their enablers were, or what constituted a victory, and thereby a termination of the AUMF. We drove the Taliban from governmental power in Afghanistan, but 16 years later we are still expending blood and treasure in a futile chase for a ghost. I ask you ladies and gentlemen, at what point is enough enough?
The 2001 AUMF, while honestly intended was too vague, and as a result has been sadly misused. Making aggressive war is a terrible and monumental decision, and should never be taken lightly. The responsibility of doing so is a grave decision, and should be treated as such. As a result of this gravity, the current AUMF has been used as a pillar to go to war in Iraq, to bomb Libya, to fight Al Qaeda offshoots in Yemen, to go back into Iraq to fight ISIS, and even later to send troops to Syria to fight ISIS. All of these conflicts have been made possible for two reasons. First, the sitting President at the time has used the fact of the existing AUMF to dodge his responsibility of consulting congress for permission to go to war against a new opponent by using the misty concept of the “fight on terrorism” to justify it. And congress has failed in its responsibility to hold him in check by requiring him to obtain permission from them for this new conflict by falling back on the same, lame excuse.
The Constitution of the United States gives the President an awesome and grave responsibility, he is the only man or woman legally entitled to declare aggressive war. But it also gives the Congress of the United States an equally grave and awesome responsibility. The President must ask them for permission to go to war, and they must weigh and debate the merits of the request, and then decide whether or not to give him approval to do so. This system both worked and failed in 2001. The President correctly asked congress for permission to go to war, and congress approved. The system worked. But the system also failed because the terms of who we were going to war against, and what constituted victory, calling for the expiration of the AUMF were not clearly spelled out. This was not sinister or insidious, simply linear thinking. We would go to war with Al Qaeda, beat them, and it would be over. None of us at the time had any idea that the opponent would hop around the board like a game of checkers, or that more than one opponent would decide to play their chips in the same game. But that is the situation we now have.
Congressmen and women, Senators of the United States, it is time. Enough is enough. This country is more than weary of war, it is sick to death of it. And because we have a volunteer armed forces, too small a percentage of brave men and women, and their loving families have been under the strain of war, and the fear of death for far too long. It is time for the United States House of Representatives to pass the Barbara Lee amendment to sunset and revoke the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, and it is time for the Senate to leave that amendment in the bill that is presented to them for debate and a vote. The country demands it, the brave service members of this great country and their families demand it, and your moral conscience demands it.
This will not mean that we can no longer go to war for a just cause. All it means is that the President will now have to bring his request for each of the existing conflicts to the congress for authorization, one at a time, explaining his reasons and rationale, and the congress will then have to weigh those cases individually, and decide for themselves whether the circumstances of the conflict, the logic and rationale support the continuation of that conflict, with the resultant expense of money and human life. If that is your decision, then so be it, but that is the job that you signed up for, and it’s well past time for you to do it.
The oath that you took to the Constitution demands you, as well as the President, defend us from all enemies, both foreign as well as internal. This is the same oath that our brave military service members take. It is now time for you to execute your responsibilities, to determine exactly who is a clear and present danger to this country, and to hold them in check. We are not the United States of Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Yemen, or Syria, or anywhere else. We are The United States of America, and it is your job to protect us. I pray that you have the strength and moral courage to do what is right at this time, and I pray that you make the right decisions. But know this, if you undertake this task, and you do it honestly, and with your best moral judgement, you have my full faith and support.
Sincerely Yours,
Joseph Murphy