This should not be a news flash to anyone, but the Trump Administration is out of control when it comes to war (and many other things, like ruining the economy, our judicial and electoral systems, as well as the landscape of the nation’s capital). Congress needs to do its job and reign in the executive branch. In the next few days, the House of Representatives needs to, ahem, represent the interests of the American people and vote in favor of two War Powers Resolutions, on Iran and Lebanon.
The first should be a no-brainer. Congress has come close, several times now, to passing an Iran War Powers Resolution, and it was poised to pass in the House two weeks ago, before Republican “leadership” twice postponed the vote. They can’t keep kicking the can down the road forever, with even some of Trump’s loyalists on Capitol Hill expressing increasing frustration with the illegal, deeply unpopular US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran. A vote on U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks’s House Concurrent Resolution 86 is expected Wednesday, and it should pass, putting the House on record as opposing Trump’s and Netanyahu’s war. It would also send a strong signal of opposition to any supplemental funding bill to pay for the war.
Two weeks ago the Senate advanced its version of an Iran War Powers Resolution, Senate Joint Resolution 185, on a procedural vote, and it may proceed to a final vote this week, and if not, it should soon. Both the House and Senate votes will likely be close, and mostly along partisan lines. Assuming they do pass, Trump would probably veto the measures, and there likely would not be anywhere near the two-thirds votes required in both chambers to override the veto. Still, Congress would be on record opposing a war it did not authorize, and representing the will of its constituents rather than weapons contractors making a killing, literally and figuratively, off these wars.
Iin Trump’s first term, Congress passed War Powers Resolutions to stop US involvement in the Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates war in Yemen. While Trump vetoed those resolutions, both the Saudi and UAE governments understood they could no longer count on the U.S. to continue its support in refueling, intelligence and targeting information, leading to a ceasefire, a sharp drop in hostilities, and an improvement in the dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Meanwhile, U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Delia Ramirez (D-IL) have introduced a Lebanon War Powers Resolution, House Concurrent Resolution 84, which is expected to be voted on Thursday.
Since March 2nd, Israel has killed nearly 3,500 people and wounded over 10,000 in its air campaign and invasion of Lebanon. The United States has engaged in the command and coordination of Israel’s offensive without authorization from Congress — a violation of Section 8(c) of the War Powers Act of 1973 — including Trump directly “green lighting” or “prohibiting” Israel’s actions at different junctures. The U.S. and Israel are also deeply operationally integrated and share intelligence regarding Israel’s Lebanon campaign, raising further questions about unauthorized U.S. participation in the war.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION – make one phone call via the Congressional switchboard at 202.224.3121 to your U.S. Representative, with these two asks:
- Support H. Con. Res. 86, the Iran War Powers Resolution
- Support H. Con. Res. 84, the Lebanon War Powers Resolution
Lastly, regarding Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s lust to overthrow the government of Cuba, there will be War Powers Resolutions in both Houses of Congress to prevent what would be another catastrophic, illegal war of choice.
In all of these cases, Congress would merely be asserting its Constitutional authority, assigned to the legislature, not the executive branch, over the grave decision to send U.S. troops to war. So this should be easy, but it never is, and without pressure from voters, the war machine runs more or less on auto-pilot. We cannot let that continue.
Kevin Martin is President of Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund, the country’s largest grassroots peace and disarmament network with over 200,000 supporters nationwide. He also convenes the CeaseFire Now Grassroots Network. https://www.peaceaction.org/
