Kaine Raps Justification for War on Islamic State

WASHINGTON — One US senator believes his colleagues will provide funds to fight the Islamic State (IS) group, but he wants the strikes to cease unless Congress formally authorizes them.

Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, predicts Congress will inflate the 2015 overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget during a November-December lame duck session.

The House approved $79.4 billion for war monies, but that was before the White House submitted a revised figure. Possessing the final requested amount, the Senate Appropriations Committee later approved $59.4 billion for the OCO account.

Kaine, speaking Tuesday at the left-leaning Center for American Progress here, predicted that figure will grow when lawmakers take up some kind of massive government spending bill during the lame duck session. Congress must pass something to avoid a government shutdown by Dec. 11, when a stopgap appropriations bill will expire.

The former Virginia governor added to a growing chorus of lawmakers, aides and analysts who say both chambers will likely pass a massive omnibus spending bill in December. The OCO budget would be attached to that measure.

But Kaine made clear he believes the US air strikes in Iraq that began in August and ones that began early Tuesday in Syria should stop unless Congress formally approves them during the lame duck session.

“We’ve got to do this mission right,” Kaine said, “or don’t do it.”

To him, that includes both chambers passing a “narrow” authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) for American strikes in Iraq and Syria against IS.

“The president ought not be doing this without Congress,” he said.

Kaine broke with Obama, who recently broke with his own past statements in favor of no new strikes under the 2001 AUMF, by saying the president needs new authorities.

“The president lacks Article II powers … to go on the offensive against [IS],” Kaine said, referring to the war powers section of the US Constitution.

His remarks were peppered with citations to Virginia figures who helped shape the Constitution and US history.

In one, he noted that President Thomas Jefferson once pointed to a “line of defense” as why he sought congressional authorization to attack the Barbary Pirates.

To Kaine, Obama has crossed that line by going on offense against the extremist Sunni organization.

The September 2001 AUMF, which the White House is using to legally justify its war on the IS, was very broadly written. Obama, as recently as a year ago, called for its reform and said emerging terrorist groups fail to meet the 2001 measure’s definitions.

But suddenly, the commander in chief says IS does meet the standard because it was once a part of al-Qaida.

When House and Senate leaders emerged earlier this summer from a meeting with Obama and declared they all believed he had ample powers to act, Kaine said he had this reaction: “You have got to be kidding me!”

Kaine took several hard jabs at Obama on this point.

He said to use the 2001 AUMF to justify the Islamic State strikes “is to torture the English language.” And he criticized Obama’s lawyers for presenting him “very creative arguments” in favor of using that force authorization for his new war.

The freshman senator also had tough words for his colleagues, saying, “Congress, before leaving for a seven-week campaign recess, was unwilling to take serious this most somber responsibility.”

He was referring to House and Senate leaders’ collective decision against bringing an IS strikes authorization up for a debate and vote.

But Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., wants to craft and send one to the floor when Congress comes back, Kaine said.

Three have been introduced so far, including one written by Kaine.

“No-ground-troop rule” should be included in any eventual congressional authorization, Kaine said, “because that’s what the president said.”

He was referring to Obama’s repeated vows that he will not deploy US ground forces in Iraq or Syria for combat missions.

Kaine also said he is “wedded to this notion of a sunset,” meaning that any authorization should include an expiration date.

The 2001 AUMF lacks that, and legal scholars warn it gives presidents an open-ended legal mechanism to claim the authority to hit new and old terror groups all across the globe for all time.

When and if lawmakers pursue an IS authorization, he said, “that’ll be a major point of debate.”

Kaine was confident a “narrow” bill will be passed to cover the IS strikes, but said a “more challenging” endeavor would be updating the 2001 AUMF.

He did reveal that White House officials are now “”deeply engaged … with bipartisan members” on re-writing that measure.

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