Three Democratic senators say Biden should brief Congress on Syria strike

A number of Democratic US lawmakers have found faults with the legal justifications of President Joe Biden’s administration for the airstrikes against Iraqi counter-terrorism force on the border with Syria, demanding that officials at the White House immediately brief Congress on the matter.

The air raid, which marks the first military action under Biden, hit facilities belonging to factions of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) early on Friday at a border point in Syria’s Day al-Zawr Province, where they have been fighting the remnants of Daesh terrorists.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin claimed he was “confident” that the raid, which had been carried out on Biden’s order, targeted positions of the same Iraqi resistance forces who had been behind the recent arracks against American military bases and diplomatic missions in Iraq.

This is while Iraqi resistance groups have denied any role in attacks on US positions in the country.

The attack drew criticism among a group of Congress members critical of expansive presidential war powers. The opponents raised questions about the legal justifications for the attack and argued that the president should have sought congressional approval before giving the green-light to the military action.

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In a statement issued on Friday, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said lawmakers need to be briefed on the reasons why Biden authorized the strike without seeking approval first.

“The American people deserve to hear the Administration’s rationale for these strikes and its legal justification for acting without coming to Congress,” said Kaine, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Offensive military action without congressional approval is not constitutional absent extraordinary circumstances,” he added. "Congress must be fully briefed on this matter expeditiously.”

Likewise, Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said “Congress should hold this administration to the same standard it did prior administrations, and require clear legal justifications for military action, especially inside theaters like Syria, where Congress has not explicitly authorized any American military action.”

In turn, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) also criticized the democratic president for failing to seek the consent of Congress for the raid and said, “We cannot stand up for Congressional authorization before military strikes only when there is a Republican president.”

The lawmaker further emphasized the need for the US to “extricate from the Middle East” instead of escalating tensions in the troubled region.

The attack is expected to renew calls in Congress for limiting the president’s war powers and shelving an outdated war authorization law passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks expanding the president’s authority to order the use of force. The law was in 2016 interpreted as providing congressional authorization for the use of force against al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

The last heated debate on the topic goes back to January 2020, when then president Donald Trump ordered an unlawful drone strike that assassinated top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and senior Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Iraq.

The murder severely intensified tensions with Iran, which conducted a destructive retaliatory missile strike against America’s largest military base in Iraq.

To assert the authority of Congress, American lawmakers approved a bipartisan war powers resolution in March last year limiting Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran. The resolution was, however, vetoed by Trump later.