Congress Delays ISIS Bombing Vote

American fighter jets and warships are pelting Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria with missiles. Washington is also funding and training rebels in Syria, publicly undermining a sovereign government for the first time in US history. But only ONE of those two controversial issues was passed in Congress.

Neither the House OR Senate voted to approve intense military action overseas. The Bill to arm and train Syrian rebels had enough room to include other unrelated government spending, but apparently not enough room to authorize military action in multiple countries. The US airstrikes aren’t just hitting Iraq and Syria. Drone attacks have launched missiles in Pakistan and Yemen, just this week.

Since then, a few select Congressmen and women have pointed out the hypocrisy in the bill, and they’re pushing to bring a vote to the floor. But it looks like it won’t happen, at least not this year. That’s because House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can’t seem to agree on the right time. Boehner says he doesn’t want to put this vote on the shoulders of “lame duck” Congressmen, on their way out of Washington.

Right now, Obama is invoking the 2003 Bush Authorization for use of Military Force. The same AUMF that led to him being convicted of war crimes by a Kuala Lumpur commission. Without a new Congressional authorization, Obama is hiding behind George W Bush’s failed policies and party politics is blocking a new vote.