Remove president’s power over war

In light of President Donald Trump’s statement on Tuesday, threatening North Korea “with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” the time has never been more ripe for Congress to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and take back its constitutional authority to declare war.

The AUMF was passed by Congress in the heat of emotions just three days following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, with only one dissenting vote by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California. With that vote Congress abdicated its constitutional power to declare war to the president, and all three presidents since its passage have used it to justify military actions without having to answer to Congress.

Since George W. Bush entered the United States into war in Afghanistan in October 2001, the United States has been in a constant state of war in various locations around the world. Will North Korea be next?

Last month in the Congressional Armed Services Committee, Rep. Lee once again proposed an amendment to the Pentagon budget to repeal the AUMF and it passed unanimously by a bipartisan vote of the committee, only to be removed by the House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin. So much for democracy.

With America’s confidence in this president at an all-time low, and with his making dangerous threats like the one above, the United States cannot afford a misstep by an inexperienced president, prone to hyperbole and under threat of investigation for colluding with a foreign government.

I want both Ohio senators, Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, and our congressional delegation to introduce and pass the repeal of the AUMF before we are in a very difficult situation. I trust the cooler heads in Congress with the authority to declare war. The framers of the Constitution knew what they were doing with the separation of powers.

John Lowe