Hi.
Did you know the United States is currently at war?
Not an “operation.” Not a “strike package.” A war — with American troops in the direct line of fire, American aircraft over a sovereign nation and American service members already coming home in flag-draped coffins.
You just weren’t asked. Neither was Congress.
On Feb. 28, President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury — a joint military campaign with Israel targeting Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities, naval capacity and nuclear sites — without a declaration of war and without a vote in Congress.
Trump ran as the anti-war candidate. Since taking office, he has attacked seven nations.
In June 2025, more than 125 U.S. aircraft struck Iranian nuclear sites, including B-2 stealth bombers dropping 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs in combat for the first time.
Then came Feb. 28.
The Constitution is not ambiguous. Article I, Section 8 vests the power to declare war in Congress. The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires the president to seek congressional approval for sustained military action. The House vote on March 5 was 219-212. A motion to block even considering the war powers resolution passed along nearly straight party lines.
Seven votes. That is the margin by which Congress chose not to ask the question to the people it serves.
Now, I want to talk about Gaza.
The United States has provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023. Israel’s entire inventory of combat-capable aircraft comes from the U.S. More than 10% of the population of Gaza has been killed or injured. At least 5.27 million people have been displaced.
The Trump administration lifted a suspension on the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs, which Israel has used extensively to destroy apartment buildings, hospitals and water infrastructure. In February 2025, the administration also rescinded the national security memo that had at least required reports to Congress about how those weapons were being used.
You are paying for this. Congress did not vote on it.
While we’re on the topic of the oppressed, let’s talk about what Congress is allowing to happen to Indigenous peoples in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is home to 11 federally recognized tribal nations. Their treaty rights — including rights to hunt, fish and gather on ceded territory — are not gifts from the state. They are contracts. The United States Constitution, Article VI, makes that clear: treaties are the supreme law of the land.
In March 2025, DOGE cut $500 million from the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. In Wisconsin, this directly eliminated $3 million in funding for the Tribal Elder Food Box Program, which serves all 11 tribes in the state under the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition — a program that had supplied more than 90,000 food boxes to Native elders.
The president’s FY2026 budget proposes cutting nearly $911 million — 24% — from core tribal programs that fulfill centuries-old federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities to tribal nations.
These are not budget line items. They are treaty obligations — legal debts this government owes, written in ink and ratified by the Senate, to the Indigenous people who were here before the Constitution existed.
This is the pattern.
A government that goes to war without Congress consulting their citizens with in-person town halls. They alone choose to send your money to fund a conflict overseas without a vote. A government that cuts food from Native elders and calls it “fiscal responsibility.” That bombs sovereign nations and tells you it is not a war.
The through-line is not ideologically driven — the evidence speaks for itself. It is about accountability — who has it, and who has decided they don’t need it anymore.
I am a veteran. I swore an oath to the Constitution. Not to a party. Not to a president. To a document that begins “We the People.”
In 1776, our Founding Fathers gave Congress the power to declare war because they understood what happens when one person makes that decision alone. They gave treaties the force of supreme law because a promise made to a nation must mean something.
That was a lot. Take a breath.
Now, pick up your phone.
It takes two minutes to call Congress at the U.S. Capitol switchboard (202-224-3121) or find your representative at house.gov/representatives/find. Tell them you read the news. Tell them you’re paying attention. Tell them you remember who they work for.
We the People.
Mehlia Hauxwell is a U.S. Air Force Intelligence veteran with two combat deployments and a Top Secret/SCI clearance, currently studying multimedia journalism at UW-Oshkosh. She writes on national security, constitutional accountability and the communities Congress has forgotten.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: To the people who read my guest view on not staying silent about Iran
Reporting by Mehlia Hauxwell, U.S. Air Force veteran, Operation Enduring Freedom/Special to Oshkosh Northwestern/USA TODAY NETWORK / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
