Kucinich Calls for Congress to Seize Back War Powers

Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has begun circulation of 2 privileged resolutions designed to retract powers lent to the Excutive Branch to fund wars in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Kucinich, a consistent anti-war Democrat, announced the drafting of the resolutions after President Hamid Karzai said his country would need US's military support for another 15 to 20 years, making the 2011 draw down that President Obama recently proposed impossible.

My bills, which would trigger a timeline for a timely withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan, invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and are intended to secure the Constitutional role of Congress, as directly elected representatives of the people, under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, to decide whether or not America enters into war, continues a war, or otherwise introduces armed forces or material into combat zones.

Despite the president's assertion that previous congressional action gives him the authority to respond to the attacks of September 11, 2001, a careful reading of the Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) makes cleat that the AUMF did not supersede "any requirement of the War Powers Resolution" and therefore did not undermine Congress' ability to revisit the constitutional question of war powers at a later date.

Kucinich will be speaking at an anti-war rally in Washington D.D. on December 12 sponsored by EndUSWars.org. Other speakers include Senator Mike Gravel, 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and World Can't Wait's Executive Director Debra Sweet.


Privileged Resolutions PDF
War Powers Act of 2001