Prominent Never-Trump Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger has introduced a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) resolution which would allow President Biden to send troops to Ukraine if Russia were to use “chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons” against the country.
The proposed AUMF, similar in scope to resolutions by Congress giving successive presidents the authority to attack Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and fight Washington’s twenty-year ‘war on terror’, is the first new resolution of its kind since 2013.
“Today, America has an opportunity to reaffirm our support to freedom-seeking people and firmly stand up to authoritarianism. After speaking with Secretary Blinken and hearing his grave concerns over Putin’s use of chemical weapons, I’m confident that the United States will show the international community that we will not stand for senseless violence,” Kinzinger said in a press statement published on his website.
“I’m introducing this AUMF as a clear red line so the administration can take appropriate action should Russia use chemical, biological, and/or nuclear weapons. We must stand up for humanity and we must stand with our allies,” the Illinois Republican added.
The proposed bill, formally titled ‘Authorization for Use of Military Force to Defend America’s Allies Resolution of 2022’, would require majority support from both the House and Senate to be enacted.
A similar resolution, the ‘Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against the Government of Syria to Respond to Use of Chemical Weapons’, died on the vine before making it to a floor vote in either chamber after Moscow and Washington negotiated a deal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons deterrent in 2013.
Amid the crisis in Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly charged the US with the planning of provocations to falsely accuse Russian forces in the use of WMDs against its neighbour. Last week, Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defence Troops, revealed that the Pentagon had developed ‘at least three’ false flag scenarios involving “Russian” WMD use.
Kirillov indicated that the false flag(s) may target existing chemical and biological facilities in the cities of Kharkov and Kiev, and possibly the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. On top of that, the officer said, pliable officials within the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have been identified to work with fabricated evidence to blame Russia for such crimes.
Russia destroyed the last of its Soviet-era chemical weapons in September 2017 under the watchful eye of the OPCW, and has been a signatory to the Biological Weapons Convention since the mid-1970s. Russia is also a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and its military doctrine forbids the use of nuclear arms in the absence of a threat to the existence of the state.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told al-Arabiya that the West and the current government in Kiev were flirting with the rhetoric of “nuclear war,” not Moscow. “We never play with concepts this dangerous. Never. We must all be committed to the statements of the ‘nuclear five’ [group of nations that] a nuclear war can never be triggered,” Lavrov stressed.
The foreign minister emphasized that while Russia does not consider itself to be at war with NATO, since this would “be a step that would increase the risks of” nuclear conflict, “unfortunately, there is a feeling” that NATO itself “believes that it is at war with Russia,” judging by recent statements and actions of alliance officials.
US AUMFs: A Brief History
For decades after the end of the Second World War, US lawmakers and presidents used a range of flimsy pretexts to justify wars, coups and other acts of aggression against other nations. In 1991, Congress approved the very first AUMF, allowing then-President George H.W. Bush to kick off the Gulf War. In 2002, Congress issued a similar resolution authorizing the US-led invasion of Iraq.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001, issued a week after the 9/11 terror attacks, granted the president broad powers to use all “necessary and appropriate” force to target those who “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the acts of terror. The 2001 AUMF has been interpreted broadly to justify US military operations in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, Georgia, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea, effectively becoming a kind of blank check for the Pentagon and successive commanders in chief. The AUMF has been used by the administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and remains available to Joe Biden should the White House decide to bomb or invade another country where it could credibly claim that “terrorists” might be present.
