Fw: SF Chron - nice profile of Barbara Lee's AUMF campaign
Paula Stinson
This morning's print and web Chronicle carry a nice story written by a Chronicle correspondent about Barbara Lee's 20-year campaign to get Congress to assert authority over war powers:
Vote rescinding military powers marks long march to majority for Barbara Lee
June 17, 2021Updated: June 17, 2021 6:58 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The House voted resoundingly on Thursday to repeal the 2002 authorization for the war in Iraq, with support from President Biden. It marks a seminal moment not only in military politics but also in Rep. Barbara Lee’s career.
The Oakland Democrat has spent two decades warning of the danger of granting presidents open-ended permission to wage war, including being the only member of Congress to oppose a post-9/11 measure passed in 2001 that has underpinned 20 years of troops in Afghanistan and a global war on terror. That position earned her countless death threats and attacks on her character. Now, she stands a strong chance of taking that authorization’s successor, for the Iraq war, off the books with bipartisan support and a recognition from many that her 2001 vote was more prescient than people acknowledged at the time.
But Lee says the feeling isn’t about being right; it’s about the work it took to get here.
“Some people say, ‘Do you feel vindicated?’ I don’t,” Lee said. “It’s not like feeling vindicated; it’s a heck of a lot of organization, veterans organizations, activists, helped us get to the point, to inform members of the public and Congress about the realities of having an authorization for military force in place when it’s not necessary.”
Lee is the first to acknowledge plenty of work remains to be done on her cause of ending what she calls “forever war” — the tendency of the U.S. to enter intractable conflicts with no clear end or ongoing congressional oversight. The 2002 repeal will still need to pass the Senate, and at the top of her list is repealing and/or reforming the 2001 authorization that has been used globally in dozens of countries that have little to no relation to the Sept. 11 attacks by Al Qaeda that spurred the authorization days later.
But Thursday’s vote is nonetheless significant. Her bill to repeal the Iraq authority has passed the House before, but only as part of other legislation and never with the backing of the president or chances of getting through the Senate. For House Democratic leadership to schedule the bill for a vote on its own and for the White House to clearly endorse it and say it won’t harm military operations is an unprecedented show of support. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced the upper chamber would vote on repealing the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), and its lead Democratic author there, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, said it stood a strong chance of passage.
And though some may question why it’s important to repeal an authorization that isn’t actively in use, the effort is more than symbolic. For one thing, the 2002 authorization was used as recently as last year by former President Donald Trump to justify a strike in Iraq that killed an Iranian general. Supporters say any authorization left on the books can be used again. But more broadly, the bipartisan vote signals an eagerness by Congress to take back some of its constitutional authority over war and narrow the leash given to presidents to engage the U.S. military in conflicts.
“Repealing it sends a clear message that we’re opposed to further intervention or escalation in the Middle East, and if it were not consequential there wouldn’t be so much opposition to it,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, who has joined Lee as a leading progressive voice on the issue of endless war.
The House vote Thursday was 268-161, with 49 Republicans joining all but one Democrat in support. Next up will be the Senate, where the Foreign Relations Committee will advance a slightly different version of the bill, including repealing the 1991 authorization for the Gulf War. Kaine gave good odds of getting to 60 votes, especially with the backing of the White House.
“It’s very high,” Kaine said. “We’re going to get a very strong vote in committee, including among Republicans. I think it’s going to translate to the floor.”
With the bills slightly different, sending the repeal to Biden’s desk will require further maneuvering, either as a standalone measure or attaching an agreed-upon version to the must-pass annual defense bill, something Kaine called a real possibility.
The idea still has opposition, however. Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said he doesn’t support repeal, even with Biden’s assurances the military would not be negatively affected.
“There are a lot of things that I disagree with the president in terms of what is beneficial to our military,” Inhofe said. He said he believes the 2002 authorization is also important to countering Iranian-backed militias and the influence of the hostile adversary. Inhofe and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn also believe the president has broad latitude on military operations anyway. “I’m not sure what the point of the exercise is,” Cornyn said of the repeal.
But a majority of lawmakers now side with Lee in viewing the authorization as outdated and leaving it on the books as dangerous, and give her credit for her leadership on the issue.
“Barbara Lee has been just a relentless force for this,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, told The Chronicle. “She’s so right. The members agree with her, even in a bipartisan way. So we’re pleased with the success that she’s had.”
The No. 2 Democrat in the House, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, recalls congratulating Lee for her courage after her 2001 vote of dissent, even though he disagreed with her.
“The 2002 AUMF is no longer necessary or viable, nor appropriate,” Hoyer said. “That is the message that Barbara Lee has been fighting for. ... I think she’s going to win this year, appropriately so. So I’m a great admirer of Barbara Lee. I’m a great admirer of how she’s handled this issue not with anger, but with conviction and principle.”
Burbank Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who has been working alongside Lee to draft a new authorization that could replace the 2001 version, credited her with decades of work that brought Congress to the “very important” vote this week that signals a willingness to tackle the issue of military authority.
“What Barbara has done is through thick and thin keep this issue on the front burner, keep this issue alive ... until we could get to a critical mass of support,” Schiff said. “The consistent and passionate advocacy she’s brought to this issue have got us here, and she’s been indispensable.”
Khanna called Lee an “iconic figure,” noting other lawmakers look up to her for her “moral authority” like they do civil rights greats who have also served in Congress.
“Barbara Lee has been a profile of courage,” Khanna said. “She’s been heroic.”
Lee says her focus is always on sticking to what she believes is right, even when it’s challenging. She notes that as a Black woman in America who lived through the era of segregation, struggle has always been a part of her life, but so has success. Several of the people who viciously attacked her for her 2001 vote have later apologized to her, sometimes tearfully. She holds close to her heart a piece of scripture, Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” And she also recalls advice from her predecessor and former boss, the late Oakland Rep. Ron Dellums, who told her that sometimes doing what is right means being alone at first.
“‘Sometimes if you believe it’s right … you stand on a corner,’ he said, ‘and everybody will come walking right to you,’” Lee recalls. “Once you come to those decisions, you just stand there and you wait, and sooner or later the rest of the world will begin to understand what you meant and why you did what you did.”
Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. Email: tal....@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
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