[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 105 (Wednesday, June 16, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H2826]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REPEAL THE 2002 IRAQ AUMF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Massie) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MASSIE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to end 
the war in Iraq. That is right, it is still going on. The 2002 AUMF 
that authorized military force in the Iraq war is still active, but 
today we will be voting on it, and it is long past due for us to vote 
on it. The original text of the 2002 AUMF was disturbingly broad and 
authorizes the United States military to enforce United Nations 
Security Council resolutions.
  We have wasted $750 million on the world's largest embassy in Iraq. 
When we get out of Iraq, it is time to put a for sale sign on that 
embassy. We may get only pennies on the dollar for that embassy, but 
that is better than sacrificing lives. We don't want another Libya; we 
don't want another Benghazi to happen in Iraq. It is time to scale down 
the embassy, put what is there for sale, and bring our troops and our 
diplomats home.
  Saddam Hussein's regime was defeated in 2003. That is 18 years ago. 
Obama declared the Iraq war ended in 2011. But the AUMF was never 
repealed, and it gives a blank check to any current or subsequent 
administration to keep American soldiers in Iraq indefinitely and puts 
us at risk of getting into another war if things escalate.
  By 2013, a majority of Americans believed that the Iraq war was a 
mistake. Approximately 4,586 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, lost 
their lives since the beginning of the war, and 32,000 have been 
seriously wounded or injured in Iraq since the start of the war.
  Although it is hard to know the estimated number of civilian 
casualties during this period of time in Iraq, it is somewhere between 
800,000 and 1.3 million civilians. Think about that. A million 
civilians have died in this conflict.
  It is time for us to leave. We owe it to our soldiers. They signed up 
to protect our country. They didn't sign up to be the world's 
policemen.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for this repeal of the 2002 Iraq AUMF 
today.

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