Two long-time war critics in the House said Wednesday that President Trump and any other president should face impeachment for waging war without a formal declaration from Congress.
Reps. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, have spent years calling for more scrutiny of U.S. wars, but upped their rhetoric by unveiling a resolution calling such military action punishable as “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Jones and Gabbard are both members of the House Armed Services Committee.
The U.S. has not officially declared war since World War II, and forces fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots around the globe are covered under so-called authorizations for the use of military force passed by Congress after 9/11.
“So our country continues to remain in a state of perpetual war at a great cost to the American people and to the innocent civilians around the world who are affected by these wars, with no declaration of war by Congress and no say by the American people,” Gabbard said.
Jones and other lawmakers have called regularly in recent years for Congress to consider updating the AUMF legislation that serves as the legal underpinning for the current military operations, but no vote has taken place since 2002.
The latest proposed legislation would not be binding and is unlikely to be taken up by a Republican-controlled House that has batted away attempts at authorization votes, and would be loath to put President Trump in the crosshairs of a war debate.
Jones said he wants to spark a new debate and pointed to the Iraq invasion in 2003 under President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, Trump’s Tomahawk cruise missile strikes on Syria, and President Barack Obama’s operations in Libya as reasons to worry.
“I think that Bush and Cheney should have been impeached, quite frankly, that’s one example. I think any president that sends a young man or woman to an area of the world without coming to Congress and we lose a troop who has been shot and killed, yes, I think Congress was bypassed,” Jones said. “What we are saying to a president is you come to Congress let us help you make the decision by debating and voting.”
