The United States Must Not Go To War With Iran

We've tried this with another four-letter nation in the Middle East that started with I-R-A and that didn't go so well.

“The Constitution vests the power of declaring War with Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject, and authorised such a measure.”

~ George Washington

Daniel Larison has penned a good response to this editorial from The New York Times about potential war with Iran, in which the Times argues “If Mr. Trump wants the United States to join the Israeli war against Iran, the next step is as clear: Congress must first authorize the use of military force.”

Larison points out that even if Congress voted in favor of war with Iran, “the U.S. has no right to attack Iran. It doesn’t matter whether Congress votes in favor of it or not. It would still be a gross breach of international law and the U.N. Charter.”

It would also be morally wrong, costly in both blood and treasure, and would most certainly lead to countless unintended consequences down the road, both foreseeable and otherwise, regardless of the success of our endeavor. We’ve been here before, though it’s been over twenty years since the invasion of Iraq. We handily defeated Saddam Hussein but at a terrible cost to both the region and the American taxpayer, not to mention the lives lost in what amounted to a major destabilization of the region. 4,431 US military lost their lives in the Iraq War. Over 100 journalists were killed. Estimates vary, but no matter how you crunch the numbers hundreds of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives in the Bush administration’s efforts to “bring democracy” to Iraq — something Trump rightfully opposed at the time. Trump also said this during the Obama administration:

The only redeeming quality in Trump 1.0 was his resistance to foreign entanglements, and my hope in 2025 is that Trump 2.0 is all bluster, that his apparent willingness to join Israel’s war with Iran is just a bluff. I have no idea if that’s the case. I do know that the president of the United States, regardless of political party, should not have the amount of leeway and power to engage in foreign affairs that the current executive branch takes for granted. Decades of Congress relinquishing power to the presidency has led to all manner of harm to our democracy and to global peace and stability.

Larison writes:

The question before us is whether we as Americans are willing to permit our government to launch a war of aggression against a country whose government has done nothing to provoke an attack. According to the latest surveys, a majority of Americans does not want the U.S. to join the war. Only 16% support entering the war. Attacking Iran would not only be unjust and illegal, but it would also be very unpopular across the political spectrum.

A joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran amounts to having two powerful, nuclear-armed states gang up on a weaker country without nuclear weapons and killing its people simply because they can and want to. It is despicable and indefensible. It is an indictment of our foreign policy establishment and our political leadership that it is even being entertained as an option.

You will hear all sorts of strategic reasons why attacking Iran right now makes sense. These are the usual dog whistles that foreign policy hawks like to trot out whenever the opportunity rises. Now, according to these men and women who will not ever wade into the actual killing fields, we must prevent Iran fro gaining nuclear weapons at all costs. But preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons by waging war against the Iranian people will only convince other nations that the only way to prevent similar aggression is to gain nuclear capabilities of their own. Further destabilizing the region will only lead to the rise of more radical factions, less confined by international law and self-preservation.

As Larison also points out, this has nothing to do with “rushing” to war, as even a carefully planned and less-hurried invasion of Iran would be wrong. Thankfully, the American public has not entirely forgotten Iraq or our other misguided ventures overseas. Whether that will matter to our political establishment or to Donald Trump remains to be seen. The drums of war are beating again. Iran and Israel are trading blows. We should mind our own business and stop meddling.

This is not to say that Iran is all sunshine and roses, or that it poses no threat to Israel or the United States, or that its government and legal system is not horrific with policies that are deeply destructive to its own people, especially women. Ultimately, change must take place from within, from the Iranian people themselves. US aggression will only strengthen and embolden the hardliners in Iran and the Middle-East. Or have we forgotten our own history of meddling in Iran’s affairs entirely, meddling that led directly to the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and all that followed?

P.S. I’m no fan of Tucker Carlson but this segment of his interview with Sen. Ted Cruz is genuinely funny.