Bill would end authorization for Iraq war

Steve Kornacki

With bills aimed at imposing a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, or even reopening the Congressional debate on U.S. involvement in Iraq, languishing in the House, some war opponents are now trying a blunter approach: revoking the 2002 Congressional war resolution.

So far, 22 House Members — all of them Democrats who have been leading figures in the out-of-Iraq movement — have signed on to the Iraq War Powers Repeal Act of 2006, introduced July 25 by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Calif.).
Woolsey’s bill, H.R. 5875, would declare that the United States has been engaged in an occupation of Iraq for more than three years — since President Bush’s May 1, 2003, pronouncement that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended” — that has weakened America militarily and economically, diminished its role in the world and provoked a bloody and ongoing civil war in Iraq.

In stating that it is U.S. policy to end the occupation, the bill would rescind the resolution, pushed through Congress in the run-up to the 2002 midterm elections, that originally authorized Bush to commit American forces to Iraq.

“It’s become very clear that we’re not in war,” Woolsey explained last week. “We’re occupying Iraq and the president never came to us and asked us for permission.”