Paul: A Vote from Congress 17 Years Ago Shouldn’t Bind Another Generation to War in Iraq – By Melanie Arter (CNS News) / Jan 13 2020
(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he heard “contradictory information” from the Trump administration at last week’s military briefing on Iran.
“I think we’ve heard contradictory information. We’ve heard … from the Secretary of State that they don’t know where or when, but it was imminent. That to me does seem inconsistent. He thinks he can square the circle, but to me it seems pretty inconsistent. To me there’s a bigger question too, though,” he said.
“This is what really infuriated me about the briefing: Is they maintain both in private and in public that a vote by Congress in 2003 or 2002 to go after Saddam Hussein was a vote that now allows them to still be in Iraq and do whatever they want, including killing a foreign general from Iran, and I don’t think that’s what Congress meant in 2002, nor do I think one generation can bind another generation,” Paul said.
“So my point in being for this war powers debate is that we really need to have a debate about whether we should still be in Iraq or in Afghanistan, and there needs to be authorization from Congress,” he said.
Paul said that it’s “not a new trend” for a president to want to skip notifying Congress when it comes to military operations. He pointed to former Presidents Harry Truman and Barack Obama, for example.
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