Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein urges Americans to oppose Barack Obama’s request for congressional authorization of military force against the Islamic State. Stein writes, “Don’t let America get dragged into another war for oil in the Middle East. These reckless and destructive wars have done nothing but create tremendous blowback against the U.S. around the world. It’s time to discard the failed foreign policy of endless war, and break the cycle of violence through diplomacy, international law and human rights.”
“Stop the wars,” Stein says. I agree with her that stopping war is an important goal. I am given pause, however, when I look at Barack Obama’s actual request for authorization of military force.
What I see in Obama’s request for authorization is a reduction in the ability of the United States to wage war, compared to the powers that President Obama currently claims (although these claims are an implausible stretch). First, the request for authorization would repeal the authorization for war in Iraq, upon which Obama bases his current military actions against the Islamic State. Second, the request sunsets the authorization of force against the Islamic State in three years, whereas the current authorization of force against Iraq is open-ended. Third, the request limits the use of force to the Islamic State, its current allies on the battlefield, and to any “closely-related successor entity” which is actually engaged in hostilities against the United States.
The authorization of force that Barack Obama is requesting does not end war. However, it would offer a significant restriction of the ability of the President of the United States to wage war. This restriction, under the guise of a new military effort, seems to be the closest that the current Republican-controlled Congress would ever come to curtailing the President’s military powers. Given that, in two years, we will have a new President, who might be yet another Bush, limitation of war powers now seems especially important.
Jill Stein would have us miss this opportunity to lessen the war making of United States, because it is not a complete elimination of authorization for war. While I understand her motivation, I question her sense of political tactics. Sometimes, heading straight for a target is the surest way to ensure that one never reaches it.