According to The Hill, President Barack Obama told top congressional leaders Wednesday that he believes he doesn’t need to consult Congress concerning possible U.S. military action in Iraq.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) said Obama was comfortable with the extraordinary war powers granted to him by the Iraq Resolution, which the president believes allows him to circumvent Congress regarding.
“We had a good discussion,” McConnell said. “The president basically just briefed us on the situation in Iraq and indicated he didn’t feel he had any need for authority from us for the steps that he might take and indicated he would keep us posted.”
The president plans to take steps, doesn’t need to talk to Congress to do so — but will keep them posted?
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) insisted that “All of the authorities are there” and that “the president has all of the authority he needs by dint of legislation that was passed in 2001 and 2003.”
The Hill’s Steven Dennis notes that “neither of the authorizations have expired, although the official White House position is that the Iraq authorization should be repealed.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came away from the meeting with the feeling that the action the president is considering isn’t big enough to require Congressional approval.
“We had an informative and productive meeting discussing the current situation in Iraq and several other topics,” Reid said. “On Iraq, the President said he is not currently considering actions that would require Congressional approval but was very clear that he would consult with Congress if that changed.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted on Wednesday:
The President is wrong and I will oppose him. He needs to come to Congress. More on this tomorrow… http://t.co/NcrFkmsUIJ
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 19, 2014
Paul demanded only two days ago that the president consult Congress before making any foreign policy decisions in Iraq that involve the military.
Rand Paul: If Obama wants to go to war in Iraq again he must consult Congress
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) demanded the same thing.
“I certainly believe that the president always has to get congressional approval,” Kaine said, who is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. “If there’s an emergency, you may need to come back and get a congressional ratification. That’s the way the process is supposed to work.”
“If he’s asking for any sustained authorization, he’s got to go Congress. I think the Iraq AUMF [Authorization for Use of Military Force] is functionally obsolete,” said Murphy.
The president has publicly ruled out sending ground forces into combat, but has already sent 275 servicemen to protect the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and may send special forces.
Ryan Goodman made a key observation:
[I]f President Obama wants to start a brand-new war, he will need prior approval from Congress to fight a brand-new enemy – and he’ll need to mull his decision out in the open. Because Congress hasn’t given a green light for Iraq 3.0. And justifying a new war on the basis of a false link to al-Qaida would amount to just that – a redux of the Bush administration’s disastrous Global War on Terror.
In other words, if you hated how the Iraq War was justified in the first place, which President Obama certainly did — “that never should have been authorised and never should have been waged” — the same justification is being used today to potentially take action in Iraq without congressional approval.