WASHINGTON — If President Donald Trump’s administration seems confused about the goals of the war he launched against Iran, GOP lawmakers don’t seem to have any answers either.
Four days into a war which Trump has said could last weeks and has already left six U.S. service members and hundreds of Iranian civilians dead, Republican members of Congress offered distinctly different justifications for the strikes. Some want regime change in Iran, while some want to destroy its nuclear weapons program and ability to launch long-range missiles. Others prefer a more limited mission akin to Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela.
What they do mostly agree on, however, is that President Donald Trump is within his legal bounds to carry out the operation and that Congress doesn’t need to vote to authorize it, as required by the U.S. Constitution. That is, as long as it doesn’t involve boots on the ground.
“It’s using air and naval assets, to go, not completely eliminate, but certainly diminish the capability that Iran has in terms of ballistic missiles,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Monday when asked about his understanding of the war. “You’ve got a strait there that’s really important to global trade, and there have been attacks on American ships in that region by the Iranians already, so I think it’s, to me, that’s my understanding of it.”
