Why Congress Needs to Vote on My Bipartisan War Powers Resolution

Americans do not want a war with Iran. The threat of an Iran with nuclear arms is real, but leading the United States to another conflict in the Middle East is not the solution.

President Trump’s military strikes on Iranian nuclear installations this week put the Americans, our troops and the embassies in danger. And this is only the beginning. If Trump continues on this path, the financial and human toll will increase sharply, especially if Iran follows its warnings which it will retaliate against the American forces stationed in the region.

The Congress must immediately vote on my resolution of the powers of the Bipartite War with the representative Thomas Massie to ensure that President Trump did not unilaterally have military action without approval of the congress. Article I of the Constitution gives the congress – not the president – the only power to declare war. It is structured as a privileged resolution, which means that it will receive a vote. Each member of the congress will have to decide whether it represents diplomacy and the constitution, or for the endless war and the exceeding of executives.

We have already used this authority to master militarianism. When I came to Congress, I worked with Senator Bernie Sanders to present the resolution of war powers in American history to pass the two chambers. He was aimed at ending the United States not authorized to the war led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, which had made hundreds of thousands of innocent Yemeni lives. The resolution succeeded. He adopted the congress with bipartisan support. And President Trump, confronted with the opposition of the congress, reduced the American support of the Saudi war machine, finally leading to their exit from the brutal conflict.

Situations like this are exactly the reason why our Constitution prohibits presidents from launching attacks without authorization from the congress. The editors have understood that once a war begins, public and political pressures often oblige climbing. We have proven that the congress can reaffirm its constitutional role – and we can do it again. But we have to act quickly.

For Americans exhausted by decades of war, this week’s events feel like a bad dream. After months of direct diplomacy between the United States and Iran, President Trump’s emissaries were preparing for another series of nuclear negotiations.

The prospects were real: an agreement to force Iran’s nuclear program was achievable. A diplomatic agreement to avoid war and bring advantages to the Americans and the Iranian people was in sight.

What made it more surprising is that a few weeks earlier, Trump would have said to Netanyahu not to launch a strike that could undermine diplomacy. However, following the Israeli operation, Trump reversed the course – by precipitating the attacks, taking them from Iran and abandoning his accent on being an elite diplomatic profession.

There is exactly what Trump had promised to the United States of the United States in another Middle East war. He campaigned against the regime change wars, which he now reported that he would support. He undertook to bring our troops back to home, to place “America first” and to reduce our military imprint in the Middle East. The Americans expected the end of waste and the drop in prices, but a conflict with Iran would explode our deficits. Ten percent of our national debt of 36 billions of dollars come from the war in Iraq. Many Americans took Trump to the word. But even his own supporters now denounce strikes and climbing with Iran.

The majority of Americans want Trump to pursue peace and diplomacy on another expensive war. A new Economist/ Yougov Survey shows that only 16% of Americans help join the Israel conflict with Iran and a majority support American negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program. Among Trump’s own voters in 2024, most of them oppose US military intervention in the conflict.