Analysis
The Forever Wars: How 60 Words Changed Everything
On September 14, 2001, Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force. It was 60 words long. It has been used to justify 25 years of global war across 78 countries, costing $8T, killing 940,000 people, and displacing 38 million more. It has never been repealed.
78
Countries with operations
$8T
Total cost
940,000
Directly killed
38M
Displaced
The Authorization for Use of Military Force (S.J.Res.23) — The Full Text
“That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”
That's it. Sixty words. No geographic limitation. No sunset clause. No requirement to return to Congress. No definition of who “aided” the attacks or what “harbored” means. No expiration date. This single sentence has authorized more military action than any law in American history.
How 60 Words Became a Blank Check for Global War
The AUMF was drafted in haste and passed in trauma. Three days after the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, with the ruins of the World Trade Center still smoldering, Congress gave the President unlimited military authority against anyone connected to 9/11. The vote was 98-0 in the Senate and 420-1 in the House.
The key phrase is “he determines.” The President — not Congress, not the courts, not the public — decides who “aided” the 9/11 attacks or “harbored” those who did. This subjective determination has been stretched to cover organizations that didn't exist in 2001, in countries that had nothing to do with 9/11, against enemies that are themselves enemies of al-Qaeda.
The phrase “in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism” is even more elastic. Since terrorism can theoretically come from anywhere, this clause has been used to justify preemptive military action against any group, in any country, that the President labels a potential terrorist threat. The authorization has no meaningful boundary.
The Lone “No” Vote
“However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, let's step back for a moment. Let's just pause for a minute and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control... As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.”
— Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), September 14, 2001
Lee voted no because she understood what a blank check for war would become. She warned it would “spiral out of control.” She received death threats and needed a bodyguard for months. The Wall Street Journal called it the most irresponsible vote since the last congressman voted against WWII. Twenty-five years and 78 countries later, she has been proven right on every count.
How the AUMF Was Stretched: A Timeline
The AUMF authorized force against those responsible for 9/11. Here's how four presidents expanded it to cover the entire globe:
Al-Qaeda / Taliban — Afghanistan
Original intent of the AUMF
Abu Sayyaf — Philippines
Stretched to cover "affiliate" groups
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) — Iraq
AQI formed after the invasion
Al-Shabaab — Somalia
Group didn't exist on 9/11
AQAP — Yemen
Regional franchise, different leadership
AQIM — Libya / North Africa
Loose affiliation at best
ISIS — Iraq & Syria
ISIS was an enemy of Al-Qaeda
ISIS affiliates — Libya
Second intervention in Libya
ISIS-linked militants — Niger
Most Americans didn't know troops were in Niger
Al-Shabaab — Kenya
Expanded AFRICOM operations
Houthi rebels — Yemen / Red Sea
No connection to 9/11 whatsoever
Iranian proxies / Iran — Middle East
Developing — no new authorization sought
The ISIS Absurdity
In 2014, the Obama administration used the 2001 AUMF to justify military operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. This was legally absurd for a simple reason: ISIS was at war with al-Qaeda. The two organizations had publicly split. ISIS had been expelled from al-Qaeda's network. They were killing each other.
The legal theory was that ISIS had “evolved from” al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which was itself an affiliate of al-Qaeda — even though AQI didn't exist until after the US invaded Iraq in 2003, two years after 9/11. The chain of logic: the 2001 AUMF authorized force against 9/11 perpetrators → al-Qaeda → AQI (which formed after the invasion the AUMF was used to justify) → ISIS (which split from al-Qaeda and became its enemy).
By this reasoning, the AUMF authorized force against the enemies of the people it was written to target. It had eaten itself. And no one in Congress objected loudly enough to matter.
The Cost Accumulation: Year by Year
Direct war spending under the AUMF, in billions (2025 dollars):
Note: These are direct war appropriations only. Total costs including veteran care, interest on war debt, and homeland security bring the total to $8T.
How “Temporary” Became Permanent
The AUMF was passed as an emergency measure. Three days after 9/11, in a moment of national trauma, Congress acted with understandable urgency. The assumption — stated and unstated — was that this was temporary. The US would find those responsible, bring them to justice, and the authorization would become moot.
But temporary authorizations become permanent through a simple mechanism: political incentives favor continuation. Every president benefits from having unlimited military authority. No president has ever asked Congress to repeal an AUMF. Meanwhile, most members of Congress prefer not to vote on war — a “yes” vote can haunt you if the war goes badly; a “no” vote can end your career if there's a terrorist attack. The path of least resistance is to do nothing, and that's exactly what Congress has done for 25 years.
The forever wars also became self-perpetuating through blowback. US military operations create new enemies. New enemies justify continued operations. Each intervention destabilizes a region, creating power vacuums that extremist groups fill — which then become targets for the next intervention. Afghanistan created al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Iraq War created ISIS. The Libya intervention created a failed state that became a hub for arms trafficking across the Sahel. The cycle never ends because the cycle feeds itself.
The Revolving Door That Sustains Them
500+
Former officials now at defense contractors
$70000000M
Defense lobbying spending (2023)
$285000000M
Campaign contributions from defense sector
Forever wars aren't an accident. They're a business model. Pentagon officials retire to defense contractor boards. Defense contractors fund congressional campaigns. Congress funds the Pentagon. The cycle generates $2.4T in contracts every five years. For the people who profit from war, the AUMF isn't a bug — it's a feature.
Syria: 10 Years of War Nobody Talks About
The US has been militarily involved in Syria since 2014 — over a decade — and most Americans have no idea troops are still there. As of 2025, approximately 900 US troops remain in northeastern Syria, nominally fighting ISIS remnants but effectively serving as a check on Iranian, Russian, and Turkish influence.
The US involvement in Syria encompasses multiple contradictory operations:
• CIA Operation Timber Sycamore ($1B+) armed "moderate rebels" against Assad
• Pentagon program trained Syrian fighters — many defected to jihadist groups
• US bombed ISIS while ISIS fought Assad (the US's also enemy) — attacking the enemy of our enemy
• US armed Kurdish SDF forces — infuriating NATO ally Turkey
• Turkey invaded Kurdish areas, attacking US allies with US-made weapons
• Russia intervened to support Assad — US and Russian forces in proximity
• Iran deployed forces to support Assad — adding another hostile actor
• Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria — another overlapping conflict
Syria represents the forever war in its most absurd form: a conflict with no clear objective, no exit strategy, no congressional authorization, no public debate, and no conceivable definition of “victory.” American troops are there because they were sent there, and no one has ordered them home.
Niger: The War Nobody Knew About
On October 4, 2017, four US soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger — Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, Sgt. La David Johnson, and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright. The attack shocked America — not because four soldiers died, but because most Americans and many members of Congress had no idea US troops were in Niger.
“I didn't know there was 1,000 troops in Niger.”— Senator Lindsey Graham, member of the Armed Services Committee
Graham sits on the committee responsible for military oversight. If he didn't know about the deployment, the democratic accountability the Constitution requires is a fiction. The Niger incident revealed the true scope of the forever wars: the US had quietly deployed special operations forces across Africa, with minimal congressional knowledge and zero public awareness.
At the time, the US had approximately 6,000 troops across Africa — in Niger, Somalia, Cameroon, Chad, Kenya, Djibouti, and other countries. Most of these deployments were authorized under the 2001 AUMF, targeting groups that had no connection to 9/11. The forever wars had metastasized to a continent most Americans couldn't identify the countries on.
Why Americans Don't Notice
The forever wars have been deliberately designed to be invisible to the American public. Three mechanisms make this possible:
1. No Draft
The Vietnam War ended partly because the draft meant every American family had skin in the game. The all-volunteer military ensures that only a tiny fraction of Americans — disproportionately from poor and rural communities — bear the burden of combat. In 2024, less than 1% of Americans served in the military. For the other 99%, war is an abstraction.
2. Deficit Spending
Unlike WWII, which was partly funded by war bonds and tax increases, the post-9/11 wars have been funded entirely through borrowing. There has been no war tax, no rationing, no economic sacrifice asked of the public. The costs are pushed onto future generations through debt. When war costs nothing now, there's no political pressure to stop it.
3. Remote Warfare
Drones, special forces, proxy militias, and cyber operations have replaced large-scale deployments. The US can wage war in a country without most Americans — or most members of Congress — even knowing about it. When four US soldiers were killed in Niger in 2017, most Americans and many senators were stunned to learn that US troops were operating there at all.
Afghanistan: 20 Years, $2.3 Trillion, Back to Square One
Afghanistan is the case study that proves everything about forever wars. The longest war in American history — 20 years, $2.3 trillion, 2,461 Americans killed, 20,752 wounded — ended exactly where it started: with the Taliban in power.
The 11-Day Collapse
In August 2021, as the US withdrew, the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces — which the US had spent $83 billion building — collapsed in 11 days. Provincial capitals fell like dominoes. The Afghan president fled. The Taliban walked into Kabul virtually unopposed. An army of 300,000 (on paper) dissolved overnight — because many of those soldiers were “ghosts” (fictitious), many had no will to fight, and the government they were fighting for had no legitimacy.
The Kabul Evacuation
The evacuation from Kabul was the most chaotic US withdrawal since Saigon in 1975. Images of Afghans clinging to departing C-17 aircraft — and falling to their deaths — became iconic symbols of the war's failure. On August 26, an ISIS-K suicide bomber killed 13 US service members and 170 Afghan civilians outside Abbey Gate. The youngest American killed was 20 years old — born after 9/11.
What Was It All For?
Girls are banned from school again. Women are banned from most employment. The Taliban enforces strict sharia law. Al-Qaeda still operates in Afghanistan. The country faces humanitarian catastrophe. Everything the US claimed to be fighting for — women's rights, democracy, counterterrorism — reverted to the pre-2001 status quo within weeks of withdrawal. Twenty years and $2.3 trillion bought exactly nothing permanent.
“We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan — we didn't know what we were doing.”— Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, White House war czar for Afghanistan
Iraq: 22 Years and No End in Sight
The US has been militarily involved in Iraq almost continuously since 1991 — over 34 years. The 2003 invasion was supposed to be quick: “weeks, not months” according to Donald Rumsfeld. Vice President Cheney predicted Americans would be “greeted as liberators.” Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz told Congress Iraqi oil revenue would cover reconstruction costs.
Instead: a 20+ year occupation. 4,599 Americans killed. Over 300,000 Iraqi civilians dead. $2.4 trillion spent. A civil war. The rise of ISIS. Iranian dominance. And as of 2025, 2,500 US troops remain in Iraq — along with contractors, special operations forces, and an embassy the size of Vatican City (the largest embassy in the world, built for $750 million).
The original casus belli — weapons of mass destruction — didn't exist. Every justification offered was wrong. Every timeline was wrong. Every cost estimate was wrong. Every prediction about the aftermath was wrong. And the war continues.
📊 What Americans Actually Think
- • 62% of Americans say the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were “not worth fighting” (Pew, 2023)
- • 57% support withdrawing US troops from the Middle East (Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2023)
- • 73% of veterans say the Iraq War was not worth fighting (Pew, 2023)
- • 65% of Americans say Congress should vote before the President sends troops into combat (YouGov, 2024)
- • 77% support repealing the 2001 AUMF and requiring new authorization (Data for Progress, 2021)
- • Despite this overwhelming opposition, nothing has changed. The wars continue. The AUMF stands.
Every Attempt to Repeal the AUMF Has Failed
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Failed in committee
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Amendment rejected 187-234
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
Failed to advance
House Appropriations Committee
Passed committee, then stripped by leadership
House (bipartisan)
Passed House, died in Senate
House 268-161
Passed House, Senate took no action
Senate (bipartisan)
Repealed 2002 Iraq AUMF only — 2001 AUMF untouched
The most revealing moment came in 2017, when the House Appropriations Committee voted to repeal the AUMF. House Republican leadership then stripped the provision from the bill before it reached the floor. The message was clear: even when Congress musters the courage to act, leadership blocks it.
Empires That Collapsed from Overextension
Every great power that maintained a global military presence eventually went bankrupt or collapsed. The pattern is remarkably consistent:
Roman Empire
Military overextension across three continents, economic drain of maintaining frontiers
~500 years of expansion before collapse
Spanish Empire
Endless wars in Netherlands, Americas, Mediterranean bankrupted the treasury
Multiple state bankruptcies (1557, 1575, 1596, 1607)
British Empire
WWI and WWII made colonial maintenance economically impossible
Decolonization 1945-1970
Soviet Union
Afghanistan (1979-89), arms race, global military commitments vs stagnant economy
Collapsed 1991
American Empire?
$8 trillion on War on Terror, $886B/year defense budget, 750 bases in 80 countries
Ongoing
Historian Paul Kennedy documented this pattern in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: empires expand their military commitments beyond their economic capacity to sustain them. The military spending that once protected trade routes becomes a drain on the treasury. The security establishment becomes a self-perpetuating bureaucracy that demands ever-larger budgets. Eventually, the cost of maintaining the empire exceeds the benefits it provides.
“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.”
— James Madison, “Political Observations,” 1795
Countries Where the AUMF Has Been Invoked
The US has conducted counterterrorism operations in at least 78 countries:
Generational Soldiers: Fighting Their Parents' War
The War on Terror has lasted so long that soldiers are now deploying to the same conflicts their parents fought in. In 2020, the son of a soldier killed in Afghanistan in 2005 deployed to Afghanistan himself — the same country, the same war, 15 years later.
Service members who deployed to Afghanistan in 2019-2021 were often not yet bornwhen the 2001 AUMF was passed. An 18-year-old deploying in 2021 was born in 2003 — two years after the war started. They grew up in a country that was always at war. War was not an event for them. It was background noise.
This is what “forever war” means in practice: a conflict that outlasts the generation that started it, fought by people who had no say in its beginning and no understanding of its original purpose — because by the time they arrived, the purpose had long since been lost.
Somalia: 30+ Years and Counting
The US first intervened in Somalia in 1992 — Operation Restore Hope, a humanitarian mission that devolved into urban combat. The “Black Hawk Down” incident in October 1993 killed 18 Americans and prompted withdrawal. But the US never really left:
Operation Restore Hope → Black Hawk Down → withdrawal
US supports Ethiopian invasion of Somalia; begins drone/CT operations
Al-Shabaab designated as terrorist organization; strikes intensify
Trump dramatically escalates strikes — more in first 2 years than Obama's entire presidency
Trump orders withdrawal of 700 troops — then repositions them to neighboring countries
Biden redeploys ~500 troops back to Somalia
US operations continue. Al-Shabaab remains the dominant insurgent force.
After 30+ years of US involvement, Somalia remains one of the poorest, most unstable countries on Earth. Al-Shabaab — which didn't exist when the US first intervened — controls large swaths of territory and generates an estimated $100 million per year in revenue. The US intervention has not stabilized Somalia. It has simply become a permanent feature of the landscape.
The Constitutional Violation
The forever wars are not just a policy failure. They are a constitutional violation. The Founders gave Congress the power to declare war precisely to prevent permanent, open-ended military engagements authorized by a single person. Every element of the current situation is exactly what they designed the Constitution to prevent:
Madison warned: “War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes.”
Reality: $8T in debt. $886B/yr in military spending. Exactly as predicted.
Jefferson warned: “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.”
Reality: 750 bases in 80 countries. NATO. AUKUS. Military alliances across the globe.
Washington warned: “The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is... to have with them as little political connection as possible.”
Reality: Military operations in 80+ countries. Political entanglements everywhere.
Hamilton wrote: “The President's authority as Commander-in-Chief would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military forces.”
Reality: The President orders strikes in 7+ countries without congressional approval.
The Libertarian Case Against Forever Wars
Forever wars are the ultimate expression of government power unchecked by democratic accountability. They represent everything the libertarian tradition warns against:
“Setting a precedent of war without end, and war without Congress, is wrong. War should require a vote. Period.”— Senator Rand Paul
“The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing fiscal ruin to us and the world.”— Ron Paul
Randolph Bourne wrote in 1918 that “war is the health of the state.” Forever wars are the permanent health of the permanent state — a condition in which the government's power to surveil, tax, borrow, and kill is never questioned because “we are at war.” The AUMF has been the enabling legislation for 25 years of unchecked executive power, warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, extrajudicial killing, and fiscal ruin.
The solution is not complicated: repeal the AUMF, require specific authorization for every military engagement, enforce sunset clauses, and hold presidents accountable when they violate the War Powers Resolution. These aren't radical proposals. They are the Constitution as written. The radical position is the one we're currently living — where one person can wage war across the globe based on a 60-word sentence passed a quarter-century ago.
Sources & Further Reading
• Costs of War Project, Watson Institute — Primary source for War on Terror costs, casualties, countries involved.
• Bacevich, Andrew — The Age of Illusions (2020) and America's War for the Greater Middle East (2016).
• Turse, Nick — Tomorrow's Battlefield (2015). US special operations expansion in Africa.
• Kennedy, Paul — The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987). Imperial overextension and decline.
• Congressional Research Service — Reports on the AUMF, War Powers Resolution, and presidential war authority.
• Bourne, Randolph — “War Is the Health of the State” (1918). Classic anti-war essay.
• Schlesinger, Arthur — The Imperial Presidency (1973). History of executive power expansion.
• Ron Paul — Swords into Plowshares (2015). The libertarian case against perpetual war.
💡 Did You Know?
- • The 2001 AUMF is only 60 words long — shorter than most text messages. It has authorized more military action than any law in American history.
- • The AUMF has been used against ISIS, even though ISIS was expelled from al-Qaeda and the two groups were actively fighting each other.
- • When 4 US soldiers were killed in Niger in 2017, Senator Lindsey Graham — a member of the Armed Services Committee — said he “didn't know there were 1,000 troops in Niger.”
- • The US has spent $8T on the War on Terror — more than the GDP of every country except the US and China.
- • There are now soldiers deploying to Afghanistan's successor missions who were not yet born when the AUMF was passed.
- • 77% of Americans support requiring new congressional authorization for military operations, but Congress refuses to vote.
- • The War on Terror has displaced 38 million people — more than any conflict since WWII.
The Solution Is Simple
Repeal the 2001 AUMF. Require the President to come to Congress for specific, time-limited, geographically bounded authorization before using military force. Include automatic sunset clauses. Enforce the War Powers Resolution. This is what the Constitution already requires. It's not radical — it's originalist.
The AUMF represents everything the Founders warned against: a blank check for war, unchecked executive power, and a permanent state of conflict that enriches defense contractors while draining the treasury and destroying lives abroad and at home. The War on Terror has cost $8T, killed 940,000 people, displaced 38 million, and made America less safe — not more.
The War on Terror: $8 Trillion Later →
Full analysis of costs and consequences
Wars Without Congress →
How presidents bypassed the Constitution
469 Military Interventions →
The full history of US military force abroad
Your War Tax Receipt →
See how much of your taxes fund war
Iran 2026 →
The latest chapter in the forever wars
Blowback →
How interventions create future enemies