CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

On War Powers, Questions Aren’t a Working Substitute for Action

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

On February 28, US President Donald Trump took the United States into a de facto, but not de jure, state of war with Iran. That is, he ordered the US armed forces to strike targets in Iran (the de facto part) without first securing the constitutionally required declaration of war from Congress (the de jure part).

Since then, we’ve seen a lot of questions–and received conflicting and mutually exclusive answers to those questions–from, among others, members of Congress.

Oh, there was an imminent threat to the US even though there clearly wasn’t.

Oh, yeah, now I remember, it was to destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities Trump already claimed had been destroyed months ago, and to put an end to the Iranian nuclear weapons program that didn’t actually exist.

No, wait! It was because the Iranian regime was violently suppressing protests that had largely ended weeks ago! Yes, that must be it!

Or maybe the weather wasn’t right for a round of golf, or someone really annoyed him with a social media post, or Uber Eats........

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