[VIDEO] Senator Coons renews call for AUMF, cites unknown cost of war against ISIS

Sen. Coons: “There was no provision made for how to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I think we owe it to the American people, to our veterans, and to those we’re sending into harm’s way to have a clear-eyed and searching debate about strategy, about cost, and about the legal authorization for this conflict against ISIS”

November 12, 2015

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined Steve Kornacki on MSNBC yesterday to discuss why Congress should take up and debate a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) in the fight against ISIS.

Excerpts from the interview below:

“I think we should be taking up and debating a new Authorization of the Use of Military Force against ISIS. We’re more than a year, almost 15 months, into this conflict and now that President Obama has deployed 50 Special Forces troops into Syria, and has announced his plans to proceed with that on the ground troop deployment, I think it’s even more urgent than ever.”

“We have a constitutional role in Congress to look squarely in the eye at the hard questions of when and whether we should go to war.”

“There was no provision made for how to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I think we owe it to the American people, to our veterans, and to those we’re sending into harm’s way to have a clear-eyed and searching debate about strategy, about cost, and about the legal authorization for this conflict against ISIS.”