WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump prepares to join Israel’s war on Iran, Democrats seem split on how fiercely and on what grounds to oppose military action in the Middle East, a worrying echo of how the party approached the disastrous Iraq War more than two decades ago.
Most prominent progressives are against U.S. involvement, but many in the party are staying quiet as a bipartisan push grows for a resolution that would at least theoretically disallow Trump from launching attacks on Iran until Congress gives him the green light.
“We ought to move as quickly as we can to make certain the president does not take unconstitutional action,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told HuffPost. “It’s Congress that has the power to declare war, not the president unilaterally. And I hope members of Congress have the guts to do the right thing.”
Earlier this week, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced the so-called War Powers resolution in the Senate, and a similar resolution has been cosponsored in the House by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) alongside Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), whose antiwar stance reflects an even bigger rift among Trump’s MAGA base.
Trump campaigned as the scourge of warmongers but has sounded increasingly warlike in recent days, openly musing about whether to approve a strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, which experts say could only be reached by massive bombs delivered by U.S. planes.
