Rabat – The US Senate is set to vote today on US President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran with no clear exit strategy for the escalating war across the Middle East.
War power resolutions legislation gives lawmakers the chance to demand congressional approval before carrying out further attacks. The Senate resolution is unlikely to pass through a Republican controlled Congress, and would most likely be vetoed by Trump – who entered the war without congressional approval – even if it did pass.
Republican Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, argues that the president is “acting in the best interest of the nation.”
The senator’s sentiments also accentuate increasing power Republicans are allotting the president.
When asked if Trump needs Congress’s permission to carry out strikes against Iran beyond the 60-day window set by the 1973 War Powers Act, Thune responded emphatically: “No.”
“I think they are achieving great success with what they’ve done so far,” he said Tuesday, adding that what happens next will be “largely up to the Iranian people.”
While the majority of Republicans seem set to vote against halting military action, several have expressed concern over the growing conflict and the potential of deploying US troops to Iran.
“I don’t think the American people want to see troops on the ground,” said Republican Senator Bill Cassidy after a classified briefing Tuesday. He explained that while the Trump administration didn’t express plans to deploy troops, they “left open that possibility.”
Polls taken before the death of six US soldiers found that only 27% of Americans approve of the US-Israeli bombing of Iran.
Democratic lawmakers have spoken out vehemently against entering into further aggression in the Middle East.
A war ‘based on lies’
“On Saturday, Donald Trump decided to drag the American people into a reckless, illegal war with Iran. A war based on lies, a war launched with no imminent threat to our nation,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said in Congress on Tuesday.
“Six US service members are now dead and more badly hurt. A missile from the US and Israeli bombing campaign reportedly killed over 150 people at a girl’s school in Iran. Violence is spreading across the Middle East with the threat of that violence leading into the United States.”
“And for what?” Warren asked rhetorically “For another forever war that the American people do not want?”
Trump expressed condolences for the families of the fallen soldiers during a video posted on Truth Social on Sunday, while expressing that “there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is.”
“Wars without clear objectives do not remain small. They get bigger, bloodier, longer and more expensive,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer emphasized at a news conference Tuesday. “This is not a necessary war. It’s a war of choice.”
Those opposed highlight that Trump has provided no clear strategy or goal which needs to be achieved for the war to stop. The Trump administration has listed a series of rationale: Regime change, nuclear weapons, missiles, defense, but no clear objective.
A survey from Monday and Tuesday reports that more than 60% of the 1,400 Americans polled did not think that the Trump Administration has provided a clear explanation for US goals in Iran.
Following the closed-door briefing Tuesday night, the top Democratic Representative on the House of Foreign Affairs Committee, Gregory Meeks, appealed to the Trump administration to “come to Congress” and rationalize the war directly to the American people.
“Our young men and women’s lives are on the line,” he implored.
The Pentagon released the names of four of the slain US soldiers on Tuesday: Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20.
Iranian state media says the death toll from US-Israeli strikes reached a staggering 1,045 Wednesday. A Lebanese minister reports that at least 65,000 people have been displaced following ongoing Israeli assaults.
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