Dear John,
It has been 20 years since the start of the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq. Despite the decades that have passed, the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), the legislation that authorized the Iraq War, remains in place.
This week the U.S. Senate is considering legislation to repeal the AUMF. Contact your senators today to tell them to support S. Res. 316, a bill which would repeal the 2002 AUMF.
The costs of the Iraq War were high. According to a recent report from the Brown University Cost of War Project, over 200,000 Iraqi civilians and 4,599 U.S. military personnel were killed as a result of the Iraq War. Military spending resulting from the 2002 AUMF has now reached over $2.89 trillion.
And the costs are not all in the past. Despite the formal end of the war in Iraq nearly 12 years ago, the Iraq AUMF is still used to justify ongoing war and violence. It is how the Obama administration justified military actions in Syria and Iraq against ISIS. The Trump and Biden administrations have used it for the same reason. The Trump administration also used the 2002 AUMF to justify its assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Others have argued that it allows further attacks on Iran.
As long as the 2002 AUMF remains in place, the U.S. will remain at war. Tell your senators to repeal the 2002 AUMF.
It is time that we fully reckon with the enormous costs of the Iraq War in human lives, environmental destruction, displacement, and resources — and prevent the 2002 AUMF from being used as justification for more harm.
In peace,
