"WE CAN NEVER ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN": REP. BARBARA LEE ON AFGHANISTAN'S SPECTACULAR FALL

[AZProgressive]

“WE CAN NEVER ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN”: REP. BARBARA LEE ON AFGHANISTAN’S SPECTACULAR FALL AND THE FUTILITY OF “FOREVER WARS”

California congresswoman Barbara Lee faced one of the toughest weeks of her political career in September 2001. She had just voted against authorizing George W. Bush to use military force against anyone connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks—the only member of Congress to do so. The measure ultimately passed 420 to 1 in the House of Representatives; not a single senator opposed it. Lee found herself on an island alone, and her office started receiving death threats. Still, she stuck to her guns. “That authorization was so overly broad,” she told the Hive. “It set the stage for forever wars.”

Now, weeks before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and as the Taliban once again assume control of Afghanistan in a shocking wave of force that has left U.S. allies stranded, Lee reflects on her historic vote, its immediate aftermath, and the effects of a war that carried on in the background of four consecutive presidencies.

Vanity Fair: What was it like to cast the sole “no” vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force just shy of 20 years ago?

Barbara Lee: My chief of staff Sandré Swanson’s cousin Wanda Green was on Flight 93. I was sitting in the Capitol and had to evacuate and knew that Wanda had gone down—that those brave men and women on Flight 93 took that plane down. It was a tragic moment for me personally, as well as for the country and for the families and communities of those who had been so brutally hit. So that’s what I was feeling, and I think probably what most Americans were feeling, what most members of Congress were feeling. But I was also struggling with why I believed that I had to cast the “no” vote. That authorization was so overly broad, and it set the stage for forever wars; it gave up Congress’s requirement to declare war or authorize the use of force and not give it over to any president. So I was thinking about that at the same time.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/barbara-lee-afghanistan-withdrawal-joe-biden

[riversedge]

1. yes. it was a very broad law. Hopefully, Senators and the House will learn from this.

[BeckyDem]

2. Lee is one my hero's. I can't say enough how much I wanted her to run for president.

[rickyhall]

3. I remember. She was the only thinking person in Congress that day.

[onetexan]

4. 'We will do this again,' Afghanistan IG warns of future drawn-out wars

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/07/29/we-will-do-this-again-afghanistan-ig-warns-of-future-drawn-out-wars/

Sopko is not, he said, optimistic that the national security establishment will internalize those lessons.

“Don’t believe what you’re told by the generals or the ambassadors or people in the administration saying we’re never going to do this again,” he said. “That’s exactly what we said after Vietnam: we’re never going to do this again. Lo and behold, we did Iraq. And we did Afghanistan. We will do this again.”