NO To Obama's New War Authorization

Dear All,   Last week, President Obama sent a draft for the authorization of military force (AUMF) against ISIS to Congress. This new AUMF is a recipe for continuing disaster in the Middle East.  As it stands, the draft would repeal the 2002 AUMF for the war in Iraq in particular, but not the 2001 AUMF that has been broadly applied to a variety of smaller operations in the name of the War on Terror.  Both AUMF's must be repealed in order to effectively curb the perpetuation of endless and unbounded war. Take a moment and write Congress demanding a vote against an ISIS AUMF and the support of alternative actions rather than war. A new AUMF could enable the U.S. military to engage anyone and anywhere they like.  Obama's draft allows for action against "associated forces".  Without an adequately clear definition of what that term means, operations could quickly extend to any affiliated group regardless of their direct involvement in the conflict.  Otherwise, this will simply be a repeat of the failed borderless wars justified through the 2001 AUMF.  Should Congress unwisely approve a new AUMF, specific geographic restrictions must be put in place in order to prevent the excessive spread of war beyond the confines of the present situation with ISIS. Act now by sending a brief letter to Congress asking to oppose a new AUMF in favor of long term solutions. While Obama's draft includes a three year sunset clause for the completion of military operations, such limitations are easily and often extended once legislation is in place.  In the unfortunate case that any AUMF draft is passed through Congress, we advocate that this restriction be further reduced to one year in order to constrain the resulting actions as much as possible. Any boots on the ground will surely lead to more destruction, civilian casualites, and regional tension in the future. Currently, the new AUMF incorporates language that would supposedly restrict any "enduring offensive ground operations", but this language is far too vague to hold any weight.  "Enduring" could simply be replaced with "temporary", and "offensive" with "defensive".  This new AUMF is filled with holes like this that will only perpetuate business as usual with U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.  War is not a viable solution to these problems and, if deemed inevitable by Congress, must be tightly contained so that diplomatic efforts can be fully restored. Yours for peace and diplomacy, Shelagh Foreman Program Director Massachusetts Peace Action

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