FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 5, 2021
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the White House announced support for replacing the legal authorizations that undergird the president’s expansive warmaking powers. Defense Priorities Fellow Daniel DePetris issued the following statement in response:
“President Biden’s desire to pare down the open-ended AUMFs could ameliorate decades of executive overreach on matters of war. But it should be Congress, not the president, that leads in asserting its war powers and checking the president.
“AUMF reform should not distract us from actually ending the wars the U.S. is fighting. The post-9/11 conflicts are a drain on U.S. resources, a distraction from higher strategic priorities, and keep U.S. forces enmeshed in civil wars that degrade U.S. security. Biden doesn’t need to replace an AUMF to close the book on an endless war—it is today within his power to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 1.”
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