The US Senate has approved a bill to revoke the authorizations passed in 1991 and 2002 to wage war in Iraq, Reuters reports.
65 people voted for the document, and 28 voted against it (all were Republicans). "Repealing these authorizations will demonstrate to the region, and to the world, that the United States is not an occupying force, that the war in Iraq has come to an end, that we are moving forward, working with Iraq as a strategic partner," said Democratic Senator Bob Mendez, chairman of the International Relations Committee.
Members of Congress have argued for years that lawmakers are giving presidents too much power to send troops to war. The new bill is designed to limit the military powers of the president and confirm the exclusive right of Congress to authorize the initiation of military operations in the cases specified in the constitution.
The US military mission in Iraq, or the Iraq War, began in 2003. Washington justified the introduction of troops with the assumption that Saddam Hussein's government was producing weapons of mass destruction and called on the military to overthrow the regime. The largest number of military personnel was deployed in the country in 2008 - almost 158 thousand people were sent there according to the decision of President George Bush Jr.
In 2011, the operation was declared over, and most of the American military left the country on the instructions of the next president of the United States, Barack Obama.
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