By Becky Bond
These days, the House almost never passes good legislation. But thanks to the leadership of two unwavering progressive champions in Congress, Reps. Barbara Lee and Jim McGovern, the House got it right yesterday – and got it right in a big way.
On Friday, after receiving more than 2000 calls from CREDO members in less than 24 hours, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution to stop President Obama from unilaterally putting the American military back in the middle of Iraq’s sectarian civil war.
President Obama has refused to rule out airstrikes in response to the most recent crisis in Iraq, and has suggested that such airstrikes would not require congressional approval.
But airstrikes in Iraq would only open the door to greater American military involvement in Iraq without any realistic mechanism to stop the bloodshed. And Congress has a constitutional mandate to be involved in any decision to go to war.
As Rep. McGovern said in his speech supporting the resolution:
“The time to debate our re-engagement in Iraq, should it come to that, is before we are caught in the heat of the moment. Not when the first body bags come home. Not when the first bombs start to fall. Not when the worst-case scenario is playing out on our TV screens.”
This hits the nail right on the head. And by putting a congressional check on any attempt by the president to unilaterally initiate offensive military operations in Iraq or otherwise escalate our military involvement there, this resolution helps ensure that we as a country don’t heedlessly fall into another intractable war in Iraq.Φ
Becky Bond is the president of the CREDO SuperPAC and the political director of CREDO Mobile. Becky has been at the forefront of the online to offline organizing movement since she joined CREDO in 2000, combining innovative technology, rapid response, measurable results, volunteer engagement and a passionate commitment to winning progressive victories. Find out more at CREDO Action.