The Trump administration once again demonstrated their contempt for the law with this preposterous distortion of the 2002 authoritarian of the use of military force (AUMF):

The 2002 AUMF provides specific statutory authorization to engage in military action to “defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.” The 2002 AUMF has long been understood to authorize the use of force for, among other purposes, addressing threats emanating from Iraq, including threats such as ISIS —a group whose objectives have included establishing an Islamic state in Iraq and using that state to support terrorism against the United States—as well as threats directed by Iran.

There is no honest interpretation of the 2002 AUMF that allows anyone to argue that it authorizes military action against anything other than the Iraqi government that was overthrown almost 17 years ago. The supposed “threat posed by Iraq” that the AUMF refers to didn’t really exist at the time, but there is no way that a resolution passed in 2002 to support the overthrow of a previous Iraqi government can be applied to the use of force against Iran and armed militias that they support in 2020. Congress didn’t vote for the authorization with that in mind, and there is no legitimate interpretation of the resolution that supports the administration’s position.

The administration’s legal argument is purest nonsense, and their attempt to hijack an outdated authorization to start a new conflict is a perfect example of why the House’s effort to repeal the 2002 AUMF is worth doing. It may seem wasteful to spend time repealing old AUMFs, but we are seeing again how these old resolutions can be misused and misinterpreted if they are allowed to remain on the books. Tess Bridgeman made this point last year in an article explaining why repeal of the 2002 AUMF was warranted:

While the 2002 AUMF wasn’t intended to be, and shouldn’t be read as, a permanently available force authorization to address any threat that might relate to Iraq, recent events have given reason to fear the executive branch could use it that way. AsHeather Brandon-Smith has explained, Congress surely could not have foreseen in 2002 that the AUMF it passed to authorize war against Hussein’s Iraq would be invoked as an “alternative” source of authority for the conflict against ISIS, which of course did not yet exist, and in which the Iraqi government is an ally not an enemy.

But more concerning, recent communications between the executive branch and Congress implied other uses for the 2002 AUMF that could risk drawing the United States into a war that is Congress’ right and duty to authorize or not.

Bridgeman was referring to the administration’s interpretation of the AUMF that came out that summer. Last year, the State Department said that neither the 2001 nor the 2002 AUMF applied to Iran, but they left a very large loophole in their formulation regarding U.S. forces in Iraq that they now want to exploit. The administration is willfully misinterpreting the language of the resolution to make it say what they want it to say. The House should ignore them and pass the repeal of the AUMF, and the Senate should do likewise. The president should be forced to veto the repeal of the Iraq war authorization if he is so committed to it. The president is already determined to keep U.S. troops in Iraq against the wishes of their government, and now he wants to make a mockery of U.S. law to give him cover to use those troops to attack Iranians and Iran-backed militias.

The reality is that the 2002 AUMF doesn’t apply to Iran at all, and it doesn’t cover U.S. military operations that happen to be taking place in Iraq almost two decades after the authorization was first approved. Iraqis don’t want our forces in their country any longer, and there is no basis in U.S. or international law for an anti-Iranian military mission in Iraq. U.S. troops in Iraq need to be brought home as quickly as possible, and Congress needs to make clear that they reject the administration’s absurd abuse of the 2002 AUMF.