Kaine leads bipartisan effort to repeal Iraq War authorizations

WASHINGTON, DC (WDBJ) - US Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) says the time has come to repeal the authorizations of military force that preceded the Gulf War in 1991 and the Iraq War a decade later.

Thursday, almost 70 members of the U.S. Senate voted to advance Kaine’s legislation that would formally end the Iraq War.

“An enemy that we were trying to push out of Kuwait in 1991, an enemy whose government we voted to topple in 2002, that enemy no longer exists,” Kaine said in speech on the Senate floor.

He also joined leaders of the American Legion at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol.

Kaine said he was pleased to stand with Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana) and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers - “to declare definitively that the Iraq Wars of 1991 and 2002 are over.”

The Invasion of Iraq began with airstrikes March 19, 2003, and ground troops followed for close to a month of major combat operations.

Kaine has made the Authorization of Military Force a focus since he arrived in the U.S. Senate, and says he wants Congress to shoulder its responsibility in matters of war, peace and diplomacy.

He says repealing the Iraq War authorizations is a good place to start.

“Many of us know families of those who were killed in Iraq,” Kaine said during his remarks in the Senate. “They had the courage to do their job. How dare we as Congress not have the courage to simply say after 20 years, this war is over. The job is done. This is partly a way of thanking those who have borne the battle here at home.”

Kaine said debate and a final vote in the Senate could come next week.

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