Kaine Calls Out Congress on ISIS War
Tim Kaine, Virginia’s junior U.S. senator, has never been known to pull punches or sugarcoat his opinions. He’ll be polite and gentlemanly, because that’s who he is as a person, but on issues big and small, you’ll know in no uncertain terms where he stands.
And one of the biggest issues Congress is doing its best to ignore these days is an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Earlier this week, Kaine, a Democrat, teamed up with Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, to turn up the heat on his reluctant colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives. The senators, both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, attempted to restart the congressional debate on the ISIS AUMF by attaching it as an amendment to a key State Department policy bill under consideration Tuesday afternoon. After only tepid support from the majority of the committee and vociferous opposition from Sen. Rand Paul, they agreed to table the amendment, in hopes of bringing it back as a standalone bill in the future.
President Obama committed the United States to the fight to take down ISIS more than a year ago as the radical Sunni force began its rapid rise in western Syria and eastern Iraq. The War Powers Act requires a president to seek congressional approval and buy-in whenever U.S. forces are put directly in harm’s way, but Obama claimed Congress’ post-9/11 AUMF gave him all the authority he needed to take on ISIS.
Almost from Day One, Kaine vehemently disagreed, arguing ISIS was not, in any way, related to al-Qaida or its Taliban allies. To adhere to the law and to the Constitution’s division of powers between the executive and legislative branches required the president seek a new AUMF to battle ISIS.
The purpose of an AUMF is simple, really. It lays out the mission to which the president and Congress are committing troops, the terms that define the “success” of that mission, the limitations on their use and an exit strategy. Politically, it shows the troops both elected branches of the federal government are behind them; diplomatically, it shows the world the United States is united in its cause.
The war on ISIS has been ongoing since last September; it wasn’t until February that Obama submitted his draft AUMF that the GOP described as too weak and Democrats feared was too open-ended. And there the matter has sat, as U.S. forces are in the thick of regional battle against ISIS.
Looking his Senate colleagues straight in the eye last month, Kaine called their inaction on the ISIS AUMF “cowardly and shameful.” Cowardly, as they fear the political fallout from joining a mission whose success is far from assured; shameful, because they are failing to do their constitutional duties.
America and its military deserve better.
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