Congress gives Trump a pass on War Powers Resolution

Enacted in 1973, the War Powers Resolution (WPR) directs a president to withdraw armed forces from a foreign conflict within 60 days unless Congress authorizes a war or extends the period. Passed at the peak of opposition at home to the U.S. war in Vietnam, the law has historically been challenged by multiple presidents including then President Richard Nixon whose veto of it was overridden.

On May 1, President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, which began on Feb. 28, reached the last day of a two-month extension Congress gave to Trump regarding the war — which polls show seven out of 10 people in the U.S. oppose. While the law mandates that hostilities end if Congress doesn’t authorize the war, the failure of Congress — including both Republicans and Democrats — to challenge Trump shows that both capitalist parties in principle support U.S. imperialism.

While several WPR votes to end the war had been submitted prior to May 1, they failed, because Republican lawmakers and some Democrats blocked them. Congress adjourned on April 30 without any attempt to enforce the law. 

According to government figures, Trump’s illegal war in West Asia has cost to date over $28 billion — money taken from domestic social programs like childcare and health insurance. At the same time, U.S. workers face soaring costs for fuel and other necessities. The low-cost Spirit Airlines, facing the high cost of fuel, declared bankruptcy and shut down on May 2, leaving passengers stranded and workers without jobs. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s billionaire supporters in the energy industry and weapons manufacturing are raking in record profits, and the politicians they control have no interest in stopping this.

The U.S. war, along with Israel’s relentless aggression in West Asia, has killed thousands of people in Iran and Lebanon. Civilian infrastructures have been the primary targets. Coming on top of years of devastating sanctions on Iran, the U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports continues to impose hardships on millions of Iranians. And a blockade is war.

Congress has never authorized this war nor seriously challenged Trump to certify, in writing in the next 30 days as the WPR stipulates, that the war was “an unavoidable military necessity.” On May 1, in response to this mandate, Trump claimed, “It is not a war,” since a ceasefire was in place. But in a typical Trump speech, a sentence later he called it a war.

The so-called ceasefire has not stopped U.S. warships surrounding Iran from firing at small ships in the Strait of Hormuz or from illegally seizing oil tankers trying to navigate the passage. The U.S. is also blocking Iranian vessels from leaving their ports.

On May 3, Trump announced his “Project Freedom” plan to escort ships from “neutral countries” stuck in the Strait of Hormuz starting May 4. Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s national security commission, warned that any U.S. intervention in the waterway would be considered a violation of the ceasefire. (Al Jazeera, May 3)

It’s a WAR. The U.S. is the aggressor and must pull out its forces now!