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The AUMFs are not inconsequential. Only a year ago, Trump used the 2002 AUMF as his legal justification for assassinating Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. A resolution adopted nearly two decades ago to target Saddam Hussein’s regime is still being abused to conduct acts of war without congressional approval. The 2002 AUMF repeal is long overdue and, two decades later, there’s no reason to maintain an irrelevant law that enables undeclared acts of war.
The 2001 AUMF is more complicated, though it too needs revisiting. It authorizes the president to target “those nations, organizations, or persons” who aided or conducted the 9/11 attacks. The problem is that it does not define the enemy or provide any constraints on the mission in question. The result is a War on Terror that deviates from counterterrorism and that has the bureaucratic inertia to continue without end or purpose. Our presence in Afghanistan is no longer based on an Al Qaeda presence but rather nat
Are Trump and Netanyahu plotting war against Iran?
A massive US-backed Israeli airstrike in Syria and a flurry of anti-Iranian measures introduced by the US State Department over the past week have fed growing concerns that the Trump administration may still launch a war against Iran during the week leading up to the scheduled inauguration of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden.
Israeli warplanes struck multiple targets between the city of Deir Ezzor and the town Bukamal near a major border crossing with Iraq on Tuesday. It was the fourth round of Israeli airstrikes against Syria in the last two weeks, but by far the largest.
Can We Finally Stop Marching to Disaster? thenation.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenation.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Why Senators Must Reject Avril Haines for Intelligence Comments
Even before President-elect Joe Biden sets foot in the White House, the Senate Intelligence Committee may start hearings on his nomination of Avril Haines as Director of National Intelligence.
Barack Obama’s top lawyer on the National Security Council from 2010 to 2013 followed by CIA Deputy Director from 2013 to 2015, Haines is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. She is the affable assassin who, according to
, would be summoned in the middle of the night to decide if a citizen of any country, including our own, should be incinerated in a U.S. drone strike in a distant land in the greater Middle East. Haines also played a key role in covering up the U.S. torture program, known euphemistically as “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which included repeated waterboarding, sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, dousing naked prisoners with ice-cold water, and recta
December 20, 2020
Rebecca GORDON
It was the end of October 2001. Two friends, Max Elbaum and Bob Wing, had just dropped by. (Yes, children, believe it or not, people used to drop in on each other, maskless, once upon a time.) They had come to hang out with my partner Jan Adams and me. Among other things, Max wanted to get some instructions from fellow-runner Jan about taping his foot to ease the pain of plantar fasciitis. But it soon became clear that he and Bob had a bigger agenda for the evening. They were eager to recruit us for a new project.