Washington ― Michigan lawmakers in Congress are expected to split this week on bipartisan war powers resolutions that represent long-shot efforts to restrain President Donald Trump’s military operations in Iran.
Most Democrats in Michigan’s delegation have indicated they support the effort to rein in Trump’s use of military force in Iran following attacks by the U.S. and Israel against Iran over the weekend that have killed six American service members and seriously injured others.
They include Sens. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township and Elissa Slotkin of Holly ― both of whom serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee ― and Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham, who is running for the Senate, as well as Reps. Debbie Dingell of Ann Arbor, Rashida Tlaib of Detroit and Shri Thanedar of Detroit.
The measures aim to block further U.S. military action in Iran without congressional approval under the War Powers Resolution, which Congress passed in 1973 over President Richard Nixon’s veto in response to the Vietnam War.
Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security panel, stressed Monday that the framers of the Constitution were clear that only Congress can declare war, with the exception of cases of an imminent threat to the homeland.
“There’s no evidence that’s the case here whatsoever. … Most all the intelligence said that their weapons program was not on the verge of any kind of breakthrough going forward, so there is no imminent threat, and yet he’s now committing our service members to war,” Peters said in an interview.
“Already (American service) members have been killed. (Trump) has said more are going to be killed, and he’s saying this could last weeks. This is the definition of war, and one that the president ordered on his own, and therefore is not consistent with the Constitution.”
Peters, who spent time in the Middle East in the Navy Reserves, worries how long the conflict could drag on and how high U.S. casualties could rise because Trump “hasn’t given us any idea what’s on his mind,” he said. “The American people have a right to know: What is the plan?”
“It seems as if he’s just operating by the seat of his pants,” Peters said.
U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Tipton Republican and chair of the House Education & Workforce panel, said he intends to oppose the war powers measure in the House because, while Congress has the responsibility for declaring war, “I don’t think this is the case right now.”
Walberg said Iran long ago declared war on the U.S., was complicit in the deaths of Americans and more recently lied to Trump about rebuilding their nuclear capabilities.
“I think he did what he had to do, especially when there was fairly firm evidence that they were planning a preemptive strike here shortly on our bases and other operations,” Walberg said in an interview.
“I think it was incumbent on the president and Israel to take this first surprise step, and it worked pretty well, taking out the ayatollah and at least 48 top officials, really decapitating major leadership and giving an opportunity now to give the country back to its citizens.”
Trump administration officials are expected to brief lawmakers Tuesday about the Iran war efforts.
The president said Monday at the White House that he acted to deter Tehran’s nuclear development and a ballistic missile program that he said was growing rapidly. He said, without providing evidence, that the threat from Iran had been imminent, Reuters reported.
“This was our last best chance to strike … and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” Trump said.
Prospects of stopping war
Even if opponents of Trump’s military action in Iran succeed in passing the dual measures in the House and Senate this week, they’re unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority in each chamber that would be required to overcome a likely Trump veto of the resolutions. No war powers resolution has ever overcome a veto, according to the Washington Post.
Most Republicans in the Michigan delegation didn’t respond Monday to questions about how they’d vote on the measure, but nearly all GOP lawmakers in Congress have steered away from placing checks on Trump’s war powers.
For example, no Michigan Republicans in January supported a war powers resolution to direct Trump to remove troops from Venezuela, an effort that failed in a tied 215-215 vote in the House.
“I suspect you’ll see overwhelming support from elected Republicans in the Congress,” said Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on CNN on Sunday.
Walberg said he’s heard from constituents who don’t want the U.S. to be in a prolonged war, but who are supportive of what has been done in Iran so far and “as aggressively as it has been done” in following the pattern of Venezuela.
“I think they see the benefit of the world order coming together around taming the earthquake zone of the Middle East and putting it on a path toward freedom in all countries,” Walberg said. “I’d also be remiss in saying that that would be up to and including having an extended armed conflict.”
Walberg also pushed back on the Democrats’ claim that Trump hasn’t made his case to the American people, pointing to the president’s two recorded videos released over the weekend on social media.
“I would encourage my colleagues, who I love dearly, to take their fingers out of their ears and listen to what the President has said, very clearly,” the Republican lawmaker said.
“He has said, we’re going to give the country back to the Iranian citizens to decide what they want to do with their country, producing a country that’s free and offers opportunity for all. And I don’t know how much clearer it can be.”
Rep. Jack Bergman, a Watersmeet Republican who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, also suggested in a Monday statement that he believes Trump has the constitutional authority to act as he did.
“Iran’s regime has long targeted Americans and our allies, including direct attempts against our leadership and the bloodshed of thousands of people,” Bergman said in a statement. “The United States must remain unrelenting in pursuit of peace and unwavering in our commitment to protect American lives, at all costs.”
Democrats weigh in
Slotkin a former top Pentagon official in the Obama administration who served in the Central Intelligence Agency in Iraq, similarly enumerated Iran’s decades of aggression, nuclear ambitions and development of sophisticated missile and terrorist programs, the latter of which killed hundreds of Americans and others around the region, she noted.
“I saw that violence firsthand when I was in Iraq. But matters of war must be debated before the American people, with clear goals laid out so we know what we’re trying to accomplish,” Slotkin said Monday in a statement.
“This is especially important given the last two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, which also started as limited military engagements. That’s why I’m supporting the War Powers resolution.”
Tlaib, a longtime critic of the Pentagon and Israel, called on Congress to “stop the bloodshed” by convening to exert its war powers and to stop Trump, whom she called “deranged.”
“But let’s be clear: warmongering politicians from both parties support this illegal war, and it will take a mass anti-war movement to stop it,” she wrote on social media.
A Senate vote on Iran war powers failed last summer after the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
mburke@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan lawmakers split as Congress preps Iran war powers votes
Reporting by Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
