President Donald Trump’s top national security aides pushed back on Monday against US lawmakers calling for a new congressional war authorization, saying it would be a mistake to impose geographic or time limits on the campaign against ISIS and other militant groups.
“War is fundamentally unpredictable,” Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told a Senate hearing about a potential new authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, Congress’ most significant step in years toward taking back control of its constitutional right to authorize war.
Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson both told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee it would put US forces at risk if existing authorizations were repealed without new ones in place. They said they do not need a new AUMF to justify ongoing military action.
“The 2001 AUMF provides statutory authority for ongoing US military operations against al-Qaeda; the Taliban; and associated forces, including against ISIS,” Tillerson said.
Republican and Democratic members of Congress have argued for years that Congress ceded too much authority over the military to the White House after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But divisions over how much control they should exert over the Pentagon have stymied repeated efforts to pass a new AUMF.
Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who proposed an authorization with Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, said Congress should “buy in” to military conflicts by exerting its constitutional authority to declare war.
“Here in the Senate, we aspire to be more than just a cog in a feedback loop,” Flake said. He argued that passing an AUMF would send an important message that Washington is unified to US troops, allies and adversaries.
“We have a job to do,” Kaine said, questioning whether resistance to a new AUMF was simply opposition to congressional oversight.
Concerns intensified this month after four US soldiers were killed in Niger, and previously over Trump’s talk about the possibility of an attack on North Korea and an April attack on an airfield in Syria.
Republican Senator Bob Corker, the committee’s chairman, said the ambush in Niger shows US forces “can find themselves in combat at any moment.”

Trump administration does not want limits on war authorization

President Donald Trump’s top national security aides pushed back on Monday against US lawmakers calling for a new congressional war authorization. (AP)
Reuters, Washington
Tuesday 31 October 2017
Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:55 - GMT 06:55
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