Twenty years after the Iraq invasion in March 2003, a Senate vote is expected this week to repeal the 2002 and 1991 authorizations of force against Iraq.
, listening to him make the case that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
As with many of her colleagues, Stabenow’s "nay" vote in the early morning hours of Oct. 11, 2002, didn’t come without political risk. The Bush administration and many of the Democrat’s swing-state constituents strongly believed that the United States should go to war in Iraq, and lawmakers knew that the House and Senate votes on whether to authorize force would be hugely consequential.
The vote was "premised on the biggest lie ever told in American history," said Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, then a House member who voted in favor of the war authorization. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said that "all of us that voted for it probably are slow to admit" that the weapons of mass destruction did not exist. But he defends the vote based on what they knew then.
"Of course, with the luxury of hindsight, it’s clear that the president bungled the war from start to finish and should not have ever been given that benefit," Schumer said in a statement. "Now, with the war firmly behind us, we’re one step closer to putting the war powers back where they belong — in the hands of Congress."The warning comes after a U.S. airstrike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
In the end, the vote was strongly bipartisan, with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and others backing Bush’s request.also voted in favor as a senator from Delaware, and now supports repealing it as president. "I look back on it, as I am sure others do, as one of the most important votes that I ever cast," Durbin said.
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