EXPLAINER: War with Iran

Is it Constitutional & Call Your Reps

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what is currently happening between the United States and Iran. It is genuinely harder than ever to parse through all of the news, the content and the hot takes so I wanted to write to you how I understand what’s happening.

—> Right as I was about to send this out we get a news alert that Iran fired missiles at a U.S. Base in Qatar, our largest installation in the Middle East and headquarters for the U.S. Central Command. Iran gave a heads up to Qatari officials, likely to minimize casualties, similar to their retaliatory strike in 2020. The Department of Homeland Security has also released a heightened threat alert, with a particular focus on cyber terrorism and targeted retaliatory killings.

What Happened:

The US sent seven B-2 Spirit bombers carrying 30,000-pound bombs known as Massive Ordnance Penetrators to Iran from US soil and bombed three nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic of Iran (hereinafter, Iran). They were gassed up in the air and never touched ground in the Middle East.

People like Tulsi Gabbard (now the Director of National Intelligence) supported Trump running for office because of his foreign policy of isolationism (aka ‘America First’). But we’ve known there isn’t a cogent theory that drives Trump’s actions other than self interest. He wants out of the war in Ukraine because he supports Putin not because he doesn’t like war.

Since we’ve known about Iran’s nuclear program in 2002 every presidential administration has tried to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons. During the first Trump Administration there was a massive fight about an Obama-negotiated deal called the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) which aimed to use diplomatic means to get Iran to not build nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump tore up the deal and claimed he would negotiate a better one. He never did and now we’re here.

Is it Constitutional?

Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the constitution grants Congress the power to declare war. But Congress hasn’t declared war since WWII, instead they have authorized military force. For example, on September 18, 2001 Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing the president to use military force against those responsible for the September 11th attacks. That authorization has been used for military operations in 19 countries. In 2002 they passed an authorization of force for the Iraq war.

In 1973, in response to the Vietnam War, Congress passed The War Powers Act. The purpose of the act was to restrain presidential power.

The War Powers Act says that the President can send our forces into hostilities in three cases, (1) congressionally declared war, (2) authorized action, (3) when there is a national emergency created by an attack on the United States. It also says that the President has to tell the Congress the justification for the action within 48 hours and says that where an action is not authorized by Congress it must end in 60 days.

The US has been engaged in a protracted conflict with Iran for a long time (more on that later.) Biden and Obama both authorized airstrikes without congressional approval. This isn’t untrodden territory, however those instances did not come on the heels of someone being elected as an anti-war president.

Democrats and a few Republicans, notably Thomas Massie have been out and about explaining that Trump acted unconstitutionally. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said, “Trump said he would end wars; now he has dragged America into one. His actions are a clear violation of our Constitution—ignoring the requirement that only the Congress has the authority to declare war.”

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said, “I was briefed on the intelligence last week. Iran posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States. Iran was not close to building a deliverable nuclear weapon….We know—for certain—there is a diplomatic path to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The Obama agreement was working. And as late as a week ago, Iran was back at the table again. Which makes this attack—with all its enormous risks—so reckless.”

The Trump Administration has made clear they view their actions as legal under the War Powers Act. If you are interested in the legal memorandum defending his airstrike against Iran in the first administration, you can find that here.

Was there an imminent threat of attack from Iran? Not that we know about at the moment, and seemingly not that all members of Congress have been informed of. Is Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon a threat to our national security? Yes, but it’s not clear if anything specific happened to make the President believe that there was an imminent shift.

The main thing restrainingTrump’s actions is congressional power. Congress could pass a resolution or initiate impeachment. Theoretically someone could bring a case to be heard by the Supreme Court but that’s unlikely to succeed. Much depends on how Iran responds.

If you are interested in a more detailed legal analysis, you can find that here.

What Will Happen?

The results of this will likely not be immediate. Trump has insisted that this show of force was meant to institute peace. But has also said there should be regime change in Iran and said, “If they do not, future attacks will be far greater,” an obvious threat. The country’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is 86 and has led the country since 1989. No one in the Iranian government has indicated they are interested in a cease-fire.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said "Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated," but we don’t actually know the extent to which Iran’s nuclear capabilities were destroyed. Were there underground facilities that survived? Where exactly were they keeping the highly enriched uranium? The New York Times reported that Iran had moved both uranium and equipment from the Fordo site before the strikes. Experts agree that the strike was certainly a set-back, but it’s not clear it’s ended Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The US and Iran have been engaged in conflict for longer than my lifetime, much of it through proxies. I’ve worked on a number of cases against Iran including the 1982 Beirut Marine Barracks bombing and kidnappings of US soldiers. Iran’s IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) have been actively training proxy forces for years: Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. The wars in Iraq were in part proxy wars. The Quds force, Iran’s version of the CIA, has been active in fomenting terrorism across the globe. The scope of the conflict isn’t limited to Iranian and US soil.

In response to Trump’s 2020 assasination of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general, the country launched 12 missiles to attack US bases in Iraq. 110 service members had traumatic brain injuries from the attack. See more details on the ongoing contours of the conflict, here.

The first response may be shutting down the Strait of Hormuz which is a shipping route for oil and gas - causing prices to rise. In the short term, the likelihood is that Iran will target US assets in the Middle East. We have 40,000 troops in the region. Matthew Levitt, director of the counterterrorism program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told the Washington Post, “It is unthinkable that Iran will not at some point attempt to carry out retaliatory, asymmetric strikes.”

Ultimately, will Trump’s actions result in a better outcome to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons than diplomacy? Only time will tell but wars typically escalate, not de-escalate.

What Can You Do?

A War Powers Resolution to Prohibit Involvement in Iran has been introduced in both houses of Congress. In the House this was introduced by Reps Massie and Khanna. In the Senate Kaine has introduced the resolution.

HOUSE: Check to see if your member is co-sponsoring, if they are not, call them and ask them to co-sponsor Resolution 38 introduced by Rep Massie.

SENATE: Check to see if your member is already co-sponsoring, if not call and ask them to co-sponsor Resolution 59 introduced by Senator Kaine.