On September 18^th, 2001 George W Bush signed into law the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, most commonly referred to as the AUMF. This law gives sweeping powers to the executive branch, or the President:

“to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”

While this statute seemed necessary at the time, we have seen the AUMF used to justify relentless persecution of criminals, a term I will revisit, that have any connection to Al Qaeda or the Taliban. Since the law was passed two presidents now have increasingly used this power, without the need to address congress, to use military forces as they have seen fit to do their level best to prevent future attacks on the United States of America and its citizens both at home and abroad. While a noble pursuit, to be sure, the commitment of military forces in ever growing numbers, the acts of elite fighting forces, the increasingly murky world of “Black Ops” and military contractors has seen our country and indeed the world turned into a battle ground where much of the action is classified. In a word, we are supposed to trust that the Executive Branch has our best interest at heart and allow them to continue to operate wherever and however they see fit to ward off what may or may not be a credible threat. So much for checks and balances.

Increasingly secretive , in a May congressional hearing, Senator Levin asked Michael Sheehan, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, who, exactly is on this list of “associated forces”. This was a question that he could not answer. He was then asked if he could provide this list and, we are told, the list was provided to Senator Levin’s office but not disclosed to the public. The rationale being that disclosure of this list might inflate the perception of the organizations as opposing forces to the United States thus bolstering recruitment efforts for these organizations. This sounds like a legitimate argument, but the reality is far more disturbing. This continued use of classified lists and unilateral action by, essentially, one man, puts the fate of our country and its people squarely in the hands of the “military industrial complex”, the growing impertinence of which President Dwight D Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell speech of January 17^th, 1961. This increasingly powerful alliance between military contractors, the US Armed Forces, lobbyists and the government has since taken us far from the beaten path of righteous persecution of legitimate and definable foes and into a world where small groups of politicians make policy and wage war on foreign soil in order to “protect American interests”, possibly more accurately described as their interests and not those of the American citizens. Of course, with the increased trend of “Police Actions” starting with the Korean War, we have committed huge numbers of American Fighting Men and Women, countless trillions of dollars, and immense natural resources in efforts to supposedly fight communism, promote democracy, and better protect the American people. The actual reasons have often been misguided and undisclosed leading to long, protracted entanglements such as the Viet Nam War and the Iraq War (a misnomer as it now seems to include nearly anyone who picks up and rattles a sabre against the United States).

During the cold war, the Dulles Brothers ran roughshod over the earth staging uprisings in foreign countries such as Guatemala and Iran. These “democratic” movements set up the model for overthrowing governments and instilling our own dictators, mostly for the purpose of securing oil. We see how well that turned out. In reality, this policy of “promoting democracy” caused rising revolutionary leaders such as Fidel Castro to move towards dictatorships, throwing their hats in the ring with Russia and the Communist world. They knew that a democracy allowed for the United States to give legitimacy to a small group of protestors, probably organized by our own Central Intelligence agency, and make the installment of a leader of our own choosing appear to the American people as an independent revolutionary force. Interesting how the war on Communism brought us more Communists. Now what we see is that the War on Terror has brought us more terrorists. It has been said about americans that we ignore history and so it seems.

The people, and I use this term loosely as I consider them inhuman, that recruit sociopathic, disassociated young people by promising them the righteousness of being a soldier in a religious war while granting them the opportunity to cut the heads off of innocent people while bragging to a video audience are not soldiers, they are murderers. These are not righteous people, they are psychopathic killers. They are not involved in a war. They are using the guise of religious war to allow them to terrorize, torture, and murder innocent people. They give themselves a name, invoke some tenants of a religion that they don’t really practice or understand, and live out their perverted fantasy. Being at war only lends to their power.

What we need to do is to repeal the AUMF. We need to stop using the military as a police force. These criminals are just that and need to be vigilantly prosecuted but not by the military. These forces need to be arrested, tried, and, if found guilty sentenced as criminals. This sounds hubristic given the size and scale of the violence but there needs to be a restoration of order and it cannot take place when we are in a perpetual state of war against “associated forces” the list of whom seems to grow larger every day, and more frighteningly, classified and undisclosed. Under these conditions, how can we, as citizens, possibly know when the line is blurred and anyone who looks like they might in some way pose a threat can be persecuted without oversight? This continued conduct is, in fact, making it unsafe to even consider travel in many parts of the globe as Americans. We have no way of knowing who might harbor ill-will against us though we have taken no active part in these decisions. Moreover, we are not even represented anymore as congress, choosing to ignore history, ceded their power to the President of the United States by ratifying the AUMF. Congratulations to the House of Representatives. You have created a potential dictatorship.

The war in Afghanistan to find Bin Laden was derailed in favor of a war in Iraq for reasons no person can identify, save for a few who will not or cannot speak on the subject. The military in Iraq went from being a liberating force to an occupying force to a police force out to win the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people. This didn’t work. You can’t dress someone in armor, load them up with high-powered automatic rifles, send them out in armored vehicles and hope that the local population will see them as a benevolent force. More importantly, when you show this process on the news every day in foreign countries this becomes the normal response to what might be perceived as a threat of violence. We see in St Louis that the first reaction in our own country to a protest that gets out of hand is to bring out heavily armed police, looking more like the military than a police force, and give them the authority to shoot tear gas and rubber bullets at even the peaceful protesters. This shocked many of us but not nearly enough of us. Will it take another Kent State? Will innocent protestors need to die before we come to our senses? Have innocent protestors already suffered and we simply just don’t know as the news media simply repeats whatever they are told by their employer?

The presumption that we must be at war with anyone who threatens us can and will find its way home. If lunatics in other places don’t send their recruits home directly, the government could easily find a reason to brand anyone it sees fit as a threat, place them on a classified list, scoop them up as enemy combatants, and render them “disappeared”. We don’t know the truth behind black boxes such as Guantanamo Bay and classified sites around the globe where we may or may not be holding individuals. We might find that these sites are so sacred to the government because they already contain many innocent people. People that cannot be released for fear that they will simply tell their story. That we unwittingly finance the war against us by paying operatives for information and occasionally some enterprising jihadist gives us a list of names of people he does not care for, we give him a pile of cash to go buy weapons to kill us with and find out that we captured, killed, or tortured innocent people that had no involvement in anything other than their squalid lives. But, we will never now be sure. These powers are now in the hands of one man, probably being manipulated by the ever-growing military industrial complex that is reaping billions of dollars in classified funds for classified activity.

I submit to you that the House of Representatives will not repeal the AUMF for the simple reason that they are cowards and they will have to step in and do some hard work for a change. Praise to Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the only member of congress who understood how dangerous the AUMF would become. The only member of congress who, in my opinion, performed her duty as a representative and actually considered the consequences of her actions for the American People and not simply concerned herself with the consequences her actions would have against her approval ratings or her chances of re-election. It is worth mentioning that in Congress there were 10 listed as not voting and in the Senate, no dissenters but two present but not voting senators whose names will not be mentioned here. If you can’t do your job when it’s most important then you are of little use.

Repeal the Authorization for the Use of Military Force. Take away the legitimacy of the groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS and deal with them as criminals. Build the police forces and constabulary that we need to deal with the issues at hand. It is more important than ever that we lead, and not follow. We need to take the first step in a return to civil society. If we do not change course the only thing we can be absolutely certain of is that the situation will, most assuredly, get worse.