Washington (August 4, 2021) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s vote to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF).
“Today’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote to repeal the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs is a major step to move us away from endless war in the Middle East and to rebuild our foreign policy in the region based on diplomacy, not brinkmanship. President Trump used the outdated 2002 AUMF, in part, to justify the reckless assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in early 2020, which nearly launched us into full-blown war with Iran. Repealing these unnecessary authorizations will prevent any president from using these outdated legal doctrines to justify U.S. military force. We must next turn our attention to repealing the 2001 AUMF, which is still being used as legal justification for the use of force or for counterterrorism operations in at least 14 countries, nearly twenty years after it was passed. The war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close, and so should the blank check for Presidents to wage a global war. I look forward to the Senate passage of the resolution to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations, and I will keep working to end forever wars – by repealing the open-ended 2001 AUMF and reasserting the exclusive power of Congress under our Constitution to declare war.”
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