Sanders & Lee: Congress just told Trump to get US troops out of Yemen. Next, Afghanistan?

[Donkees]

Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee, Opinion contributors | Updated 12:45 p.m. ET April 4, 2019

Excerpt:

According to the Trump administration, U.S. forces are currently fighting in seven different countries — Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Niger, and Libya — against militants linked to Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. The administration justifies these interventions under the Authorizations for the Use of Military Force passed by Congress in in 2001 and 2002.

It is time for Congress to ask whether, nearly 18 years after 9/11, we really want to continue to be involved in these wars for another 18 or more. According to a recent study by the Costs of War Project at Brown University, the War on Terror will have cost American taxpayers almost $5 trillion through Fiscal Year 2019. When taking in to account future health care obligations for veterans injured in post-9/11 wars, the bill comes closer to $6 trillion.

Even after this enormous expense, the world has more militants, not fewer. A November 2018 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that the number of militants has continued to grow. “Despite nearly two decades of U.S.-led counterterrorism operations,” the report said, “there are nearly four times as many Sunni Islamic militants today as there were on September 11, 2001.”

The time is long overdue for Congress to reassert its constitutional responsibility over war making. We need a serious national debate over when and where we put our military in harm’s way, and about how much we are prepared to spend on those interventions. Congress’s historic vote on Yemen this week is an important beginning in that process, now we must continue forward.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/04/04/congress-yemen-war-powers-bernie-sanders-mike-lee-column/3363199002/