How it works

Knowledge > Action > Power

Oct 03, 2025

Just a little freak out over here. Don’t mind me.

Phew! Now, that we’ve gotten that out of the way…

I watched a great interview this week, between comedian Hasan Minhaj and Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. (Please ignore the stupid emojis.)

The whole thing is worth watching, but the pertinent part for our conversation starts at 10:37, when Minhaj notes that folks on the internet are increasingly saying we’re headed towards civil war here in the United States. Omar was 8-years old when civil war came to Somalia in late 1990, and Minhaj asks her about the description of it in her memoir. She wrote of the war coming out of nowhere. One day everything was fine and then the next day bullets were flying and people were dying.

Omar responds to Minhaj in a way I think is important for all of us to hear. She says her feeling about the abruptness of the onset of the war was based in the perceptions of a child. Her parents, grandparents, uncles, older cousins, and siblings, had all been watching the situation develop since at least the mid-80’s and weren’t surprised at all.

War never erupts out of nowhere. But if you’re young, intentionally ignoring the political situation, or don’t know how things work then it sure can feel that way.

I can’t do anything about anyone’s age or make people pay attention if they’re determined not to for one reason or another. But I can explain how things work.

So, how does war work in the United States?

The United States government cannot declare or pursue war without the express and official approval of Congress. It’s part of that whole “we don’t do Kings here” thing that is the basis of our whole system of government, outlined in the Constitution.

There hasn’t been an officially approved Declaration of War since 1941. However, we’ve been involved in one war or another continually since then under the auspices of what’s called an AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force). Through an AUMF, Congress authorizes the president to use the U.S. military in a specific conflict.

The AUMF was designed to be restricted in its scope. But then came the Sept 11 attacks and a week later Congress approved Public Law 107–40, otherwise known as the 2001 AUMF. Only one member of Congress voted against it, the prescient Barbara Lee. The 2001 AUMF was then followed by the 2002 AUMF, which authorized the war in Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein.

Unlike every AUMF prior, the 2001 AUMF granted then-President George W. Bush the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11 attacks, or anyone who harbored said persons or groups.

We had officially embraced the War on Terror.

Since 2001, every president of every party has interpreted the 2001 AUMF, which is still in effect after 24 years (as is the 2002 AUMF), to give him broad powers to pursue non-state actors who he classifies as a threat to the U.S. It’s the 2001 AUMF that President Trump leaned on this week when he proclaimed the U.S. was at war with drug cartels, thus backfilling justification for blowing up ships in international waters off the coast of Venezuela.

It’s the 2001 AUMF that President Trump is leaning on to justify mass deportations of immigrants under unsubstantiated accusations that they are members of Tren de Aragua.

And it’s the 2001 AUMF that President Trump is leaning on to encourage federal agents to terrorize civilian men, women, and children from L.A. to Boston to, this week, Chicago, where armed, uniformed troops pulled people naked out of their beds, zip-tied children together, and then left everyone in the street for hours. Trump officials stated there were supposedly members of Tren de Aragua in the building, but provided no concrete proof of that assertion.

It is unfortunately true that our current, Republican-controlled Congress has spit in the face of the separation of powers that was expressly created to control for a power-hungry president. I don’t think we can count on Congress to repeal the 2001 AUMF right now, or any time soon.

(Though that doesn’t mean a call to your Member of Congress (202-224-3121) urging them to oppose Trump’s supposed war justifications would be a total waste. You definitely should call. Please.)

But authoritarian regimes (like the one we are living under now) have never been overthrown solely by a bunch of opposition politicians. It’s the masses of citizens refusing to lie down, accept the lies and justifications, or look away when authorities come for their neighbors that turn the tide.

We can refuse to accept the scapegoating of immigrants. We can defend and protect our neighbors. We can care for each other. We can take to the streets.

It’s dark times, for sure, but they aren’t coming out of nowhere. We’ve been building towards this for a long time.

Anything built can be demolished, though. Grab your hammer.

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