Trump’s wars might be illegal, but Congress’s inaction is unforgivable

Long before launching an unsanctioned war against Iran, President Trump had on many occasions evinced his abject dismissal of the law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the International Law of Armed Conflict, the War Crimes Act, the U.S. Constitution and the welfare of the armed forces under his command. 

From Sept. 2, 2025 to April 28, following the orders of President Trump, U.S. armed forces have launched, without provocation, 55 military air strikes on vessels navigating the high seas, killing at least 174 civilians with four survivors and 11 missing and presumed dead.

Thus far, there has been no legitimate congressional oversight of those attacks, even though each of them and the deaths they caused may amount to war crimes. Also, there were no reports of shots fired by the vessels before the taking of those lives. There is little reported evidence establishing proof of anything about the people killed, or the contents of their boats. All of that appears to have been vaporized beyond recognition by powerful U.S. munitions.  

After months of such extrajudicial killings, the president and the secretary of Defense have not only laid bare a shocking repudiation of the law, but also no........

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