.

The Constitution of the United States of America clearly and deliberately gives the power to declare war to Congress and not to the executive. The modern age and a parade of presidents has eroded the distinction between military action and war. Since the Second World War Congress has acquiesced to the White House more and more latitude in conducting offensive military action but still recognizing their role in the process with legislation such as an Authorization for Use of Military Force.

Trump launched his sudden and extensive bombing campaign against Iran without any form of Congressional approval. This is not one fast mission with a clearly defined goal, this is a prolonged campaign with ill-defined, if defined at all, objectives. Destroying that nation’s nuclear ambitions, that had been ‘obliterated’ nine months prior, preventing a retaliatory strike following an attack by one of our allies, collapsing Iran’s government, have all been both expressed and denied as goals of the bombing war. It is clearly the purview of Congress to debate and either approve or forbid this action. Yet legislation to do precisely that has been killed by the Republican leadership of both houses.  Politicians who have repeatedly and loudly accused nearly every executive action by Democratic presidents of being a step towards serfdom and an illegal usurpation of the Constitution cower from the cult that surrounds this president, breaking their oaths of office and proving to anyone with unbiased eyes that they are from a political party unfit for power.

.

Late Friday evening, early Saturday morning, President Trump, in coordination with the nation of Israel, initiated ongoing military actions which were the equivalent of war, against Iran without bothering to obtain, even consult with, the Congress of the United States of America, the sole body given by our constitution with the authority to declare war.

Do not misconstrue, by deliberate intent and misrepresentation or by casual, clumsy reading, that my opinions here in any manner or way voice support for that theocratic despotic regime of that nation. The Islamic revolution brought no freedom to the Iranian people but moved them from a secular despot to a theocratic one. My concerns at the moment though are for the American people and the rot that is corrupting our national system.

Trump did not ‘sell’ the American people on this war. He did not spend days or weeks laying the evidence and case that this action was essential to our security and safety as a people or as a nation. He did not go to congress, one that is entirely controlled by his own political party and has shown repeatedly that there is no debasement that they will not endure to place his will into action, to gain their consent and authorization for the military misadventure. Trump did not rally our allies, he did not build a coalition to generate international support for this attack. He, along with the Prime Minister of Israel, two charter members of the ‘Board of Peace’ of which Trump is Chairman for life, charged ahead with their plots and plans to decapitate the Iranian leadership sans any congressional authorization or approval — blatantly unconstitutional.

Trump’s supporters will inhabit the spectrum from full-throated support to shamed silence and deceptive ‘what-aboutisms’ to deflect from this authoritarian action. People who are quick to push their pocket constitutions into your face, screaming ‘Unconstitutional!’ at even the mildest firearm regulation will suddenly fall quiet about this abuse of executive power and privilege. If they speak at all it will be to declare criticisms of Trump to be ‘unpatriotic’ and the product of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

How long will this war last? I don’t know, no one knows. Once begun such things have a life of their own. Iran is striking back, after all they were attacked without warning or declaration of war, making the Trump administration more like the Harkonnens of Dune than the founding fathers. It is very hard to win a war purely from the air and I doubt that this administration possesses neither the spine nor the stomach for ground action. We have started a war on a footing that seems highly unlikely to produce a clean definitive resolution.

The Islamic Republic of Iran may fall internally, creating a power vacuum that apparently Trump and his allies hope will be filled by kinder, gentler people. Though if history is any guide the kind and the gentle generally do not outcompete the cruel and vicious in filling power vacuums. Rebellions may be built on hope, national strategies should not be.

The Islamic Republic may withstand these blows, in which case the hope is that the new leaders are cowed and subservient to America and Israel’s wishes. That too strikes me as an unrealistic outcome. Any new leadership must not only manage external forces, such as the implacably hostile American and Israeli positions but internal stresses which range from insurrectionist forces and the desire of current forces, such as The Islamic Revolutionary Guard, unwilling to surrender their own power. Pride and ego will be powerful determining forces in the post-conflict environment and people who have been humiliated are disinclined to be submissive. People die for pride.

I have no hope that the Republicans in charge of the House or the Senate will find the backbone to live up to their oaths and so it will fall onto the American people to replace them this fall with men and women who will.