Washington, D.C. – The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) celebrates today’s repeal of the Iraq War authorization, known as the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq (Iraq AUMF). We can build peace by removing the legal justification for war.
The Iraq AUMF authorized the Iraq War, which began in 2003 and was declared over by President Obama in 2011. Despite this, the authorization was subsequently misused to justify military actions never intended by Congress. This includes the first Trump administration’s claim that it provided authority for the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and both the Trump and Biden administrations’ use of the authorization for strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.
The 2002 Iraq AUMF was repealed as part of the annual military policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA. Amendments from Sens. Tim Kaine (VA) and Todd Young (IN) and from Reps. Gregory Meeks (NY-5) and Chip Roy (TX-21) to repeal the decades’-old war authorization were adopted by both the Senate and House on a bipartisan basis.
For years, FCNL’s nationwide grassroots network has built relationships with Congress by respectfully but persistently urging them to reject the open-ended war authorizations that perpetuate conflict and a militarized foreign policy. In 2019 and 2021 our grassroots Advocacy Teams focused on lobbying Congress to repeal the Iraq AUMF, garnering support for House passage of H.R. 256 from former Rep. Barbara Lee with a strong bipartisan vote in 2021. In 2023, the Senate voted for the first time to repeal the Iraq AUMF, passing S. 316, a bipartisan bill led by Sens. Kaine and Young.
The Trump administration agrees. In a Statement of Administration Policy, they said that repealing the Iraq AUMF was “aligned with the President’s historic commitment to peace and ending ‘forever wars.’”
With this momentous repeal and the formal end to the Iraq War, President Trump should affirm his commitment to peace by ensuring that the United States does not pursue any new war, whether with Venezuela or any other nation or group.
