Randy is not afraid of making some news. Will the fake news give a crap? Most certainly the rest of the Senate gives a crap -- about making Paul a non-entity to the extent possible.
What is Paul's most effective strategy?
Rand Paul: Why we must repeal the 16-year-old Authorization for the Use of Military Force
andAs Congress takes up the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), I will insist it vote on my amendment to sunset the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force.
Why?
Because these authorizations to use military force are inappropriately being used to justify American warfare in 7 different countries. Sunsetting both AUMFs will force a debate on whether we continue the Afghanistan war, the Libya war, the Yemen war, the Syria war, and other interventions.
Our military trains our soldiers to be focused and disciplined, yet the politicians who send them to fight have for years ignored those traits when developing our foreign policy.
The result? Trillions spent in seemingly endless conflicts in every corner of the globe, while we find ourselves 16 years into the war in Afghanistan wondering what our purpose there even is any more, or if we’ll ever bring our troops home.
If we don’t get this rudderless foreign policy under control now, we’ll still be asking the same questions another 16 years down the road.
It’s time to demand the policymakers take their own jobs as seriously as the men and women we ask to risk it all for our nation.
. . .
Although ISIS is a threat we must confront and defeat, we cannot continue to throw our Constitution out the window to do so, or our enemies will have won a crucial victory no matter how many of them we destroy.
Rand Paul holds up defense bill: “I sit silently to protest the thousands of American soldiers who have died”
andSen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released a statement on his Facebook page Monday night criticizing the Senate’s decision to move forward with the 2018 Defense Bill. Paul has called for an amendment that would end the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) in Afghanistan and Iraq. The senator stands in stark opposition to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
“Tonight, the Senate is attempting to move forward with the Defense Bill,” Paul’s statement reads. “I am seeking an amendment to end the AUMF in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
“I will object to all procedural motions and amendments unless and until my amendment is made in order and we vote on these wars. An attempt was made to run the clock on the bill overnight,” Paul insisted.
“I objected and am now sitting on the floor of the Senate to stop that,” the senator declared.
Rand Paul's Maneuver Against Endless Wars
Senator Rand Paul is trying to pressure his colleagues in Congress to reassert power over where the United States wages war. Should U.S. troops be fighting in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan? Should American drones carry out lethal strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and beyond? The Kentucky Republican wants the House and Senate to decide questions like that through new votes that force legislators to go on the record so that they are fully accountable to their constituents—and discharging the role enumerated for them in the U.S. Constitution.
In recent years, Congress has instead ceded such questions to successive presidents. For example, President Barack Obama waged war in at least seven countries under the auspices of an Authorization to Use Military Force that legislators passed shortly after 9/11, even though its language specifies “those nations, organizations, or persons” that “planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001,” a limit that has been oft exceeded.
