Street art by Banksy
I echo what many have said this past weekend: Iranian General Soleimani was absolutely an enemy of the United States, but under no circumstances do I approve of Trump assassinating him without consulting Congress.
This latest action by Trump is yet another example of him disregarding a co-equal branch of government and doing whatever he pleases without regard to the consequences, and this cannot stand.
For some good background information, check out Vox’s article, 9 big questions about Qassem Soleimani’s killing, answered by an expert.
There’s also a lot of questions about what is allowed by law — what powers does the president have unilaterally and what s/he has to do with Congress’ approval. According to the Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war. That said, this is very complicated. I encourage you to check out this great (and short) explanation of how the War Powers Act (or Resolution) came to be and what it means for us today:
What We Can Do
This past weekend, anti-war protests sprang up all over the country. Here are some photos from the protest in New York City, but there were protests in over 70 cities:
What each of us needs to do today is to call our Representative and Senators in Congress and tell them that you want them to support Senator Tim Kaine’s resolution to block Trump from further escalating the hostilities with Iran. On Sunday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told Democrats that they would be introducing a similar resolution in the House with a vote scheduled for later this week.
You can find contact information HERE and if you’d like a script, feel free to use this one:
My name is _____________ and I’m a constituent from ___[your zip code]___. I do not want Trump to escalate the situation with Iran and so want the Senator/Congressperson to vote in favor of the upcoming resolution to block Trump from acting unilaterally. Trump does not respect the Constitution and in this matter, he must consult Congress. I am not in favor of America entering a war with Iran. Thank you.
Never assume that your members of Congress know what you want. This is especially true if your representatives are Democratic. Don’t let their offices just be flooded with calls from the MAGA crowd. We all need to do our civic duty and tell them how we feel about this critically important issue.
UPDATE: (Jan. 7) The attacks happening this evening has complicated the timing for the Democrats’ push for a vote re: war powers. That said, you can still call your members of Congress to demand that they push the administration to de-escalate the situation with Iran and avoid war.
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Twitter: @DHStokyo
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