Soon after I began as a Young Fellow at FCNL, President Obama announced a new war in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State. Lacking congressional approval, the administration instead claimed that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a fourteen-year old authorization that consists of a mere sixty words, served as legal justification.
Soon after I began as a Young Fellow at FCNL, President Obama announced a new war in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State. Lacking congressional approval, the administration instead claimed that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a fourteen-year old authorization that consists of a mere sixty words, served as legal justification.
As my time at FCNL comes to a close, very little has changed—Congress has continued to ignore its constitutional mandate to debate and authorize war, and a failing war rages on, seemingly without end. Fourteen years, more than $4 trillion, and thousands of lives into the global war on terror, the U.S. has failed to eliminate or even reduce terrorism. Meanwhile, the United States’ use of indefinite detention, torture, targeted killings, and mass surveillance has left stains on our nation’s moral integrity. It is clear that a new approach is well-past overdue, but how can we ensure that the next chapter better resembles the world we seek?
FCNL is persistently working to shift U.S. foreign policy away from one based on fear and militarization, and instead towards one that prevents, mitigates, and transforms violent conflict. Despite the militarized mentality that still dominates within the halls of Congress, there are Members who are boldly echoing the call for peace.
Since then, there is even more cause for hope. A few weeks ago, Representatives Jim McGovern, Barbara Lee, and Walter Jones introduced legislation that attempted to force Congress to finally debate the war against ISIS that has lasted more than ten months without specific congressional debate and authorization. While it ultimately failed, 139 members explicitly voted to remove the armed forces. This comes shortly after two other measures, one to repeal the 2001 AUMF and another to cut off funding for the war against ISIS, earned significant support; these amendments garnered 157 and 196 votes of support, respectively.
The Senate also made enormous steps forward recently by passing—with an overwhelming majority—an anti-torture amendment. The amendment codifies President Obama’s executive order against torture, requires the Army Field Manual to be updated every three years, and requires the International Committee of the Red Cross access to detainees. This vote sent a message to the world: the United States is categorically opposed to torture and will turn away from the despicable practices that have occurred as part of the endless war. In addition to lobbying members to vote in favor of this important amendment, FCNL also joined a letter with other faith leaders urging support. We continue to lobby to ensure that this amendment becomes law.
A New Chapter
Meanwhile, a group of Senators are taking the argument a step further not just by challenging the status quo, but proposing a brand new foreign policy toolbox. Senators Chris Murphy, Brian Schatz, and Martin Heinrich have recently drafted what they’ve deemed a “new progressive foreign policy.” Their “forward-looking and pragmatic principles” advise a shift away from military action as an immediate response. They also propose a new Marshall Plan that would reduce military spending and alternatively invest in at-risk regions to meet the economic and political needs of populations. Other principles include: a strengthening of domestic issues (including a focus on climate change), upholding international human rights, reining in of mass surveillance and drone strikes, and working through international organizations and coalitions. At the very least, their efforts reveal a desire for Members to move away from militarized tactics and instead search for a new framework.
As my time at FCNL comes to a close, I sometimes feel like we are no closer to peace than we were when I began a year ago; I am still a part of a generation of war. In these moments, I remind myself of President Obama’s words, “Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.”
Let us continue to challenge the President to heed his own words, and relentlessly pursue the world we seek.