(Washington, DC, Wednesday, November 16, 2022) – October marked 20 years since Congress authorized the 2003 war in Iraq. Despite American military forces withdrawing in 2011 and Saddam Hussein being executed in 2006, the authorization remains law and has been used to continue violence there and in other countries ever since.

Congress will be voting within weeks to officially end this war. That is critical to putting an end to military operations – like the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, amongst others – that Presidents Bush, Obama and Trump have ordered using the outdated war authorization as legal justification.

Twenty years on, we must reflect on the costs and consequences of this law and war. After years of bloodshed, billions of American dollars spent, and a near-complete Congressional surrender in terms of oversight, they finally look ready to repeal this outdated war authorization. Good news for a war-weary public.

The actions Congress and the Bush’s administration took in the days and months following the 9/11 attacks would set the tone for decades of endless wars. They would also leave dangerously ambiguous any governance over when, where and with whom the United States would intervene militarily as Congress decidedly relinquished its authority over matters of war to the Executive Branch.