We are facing a dark moment in our country’s history. On Saturday, Donald Trump decided to drag the American people into a reckless, illegal war with Iran. A war based on lies. A war launched with no imminent threat to our country. Six U.S. service members are now dead and more are badly hurt. A missile from the US and Israeli-led bombing campaign reportedly killed over 150 people at a school in Iran — many of them little girls, some as young as seven years old. Now violence is spreading across the Middle East, with the threat of that violence bleeding into the United States. And for what? For another forever war the American people do not want? The Constitution is clear: only Congress can declare war. That is because one single person should not have the power to drag our entire country into a reckless war — but that’s exactly what Donald Trump has done. And yet, even after multiple bombing runs and the death of American service members, Donald Trump cannot give a single clear reason for this war. He has no stated objectives. No clear strategies. No way to explain that if we accomplish “this,” we will leave. Every hour the Trump administration feeds us shifting justifications for this war — and every hour he contradicts a justification he used earlier. He said that Iran has restarted its nuclear program. But his own officials have said that’s not true. He claimed that Iran is developing long-range missiles that will soon be capable of hitting the United States. That directly goes against what his own government has claimed. In June of last year, when he bombed Iran and claimed that Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.” Now, he is telling the American people that he had to attack Iran on Saturday because Iran posed an imminent threat based on their nuclear capabilities. Both of those things cannot be true. In fact, the United States had a deal that could have prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. That was President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran — and Trump ripped up that deal and got nothing — nothing — in return. Instead of doing the hard work of diplomacy to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, Trump is lying to Americans while dragging us into yet another reckless war that is costing American lives. All three of my brothers served in the military. My oldest brother served off and on in Vietnam for 6 years, running 266 combat missions. I remember the fear our family felt with every late-night phone call or official-looking letter — could my brother be hurt or killed. It is still hard to find the words to describe the pain we put American families through when we ship a generation off to war. The people who will be asked to sacrifice their lives are the American people. It won’t be Donald Trump. It won’t be Pete Hegseth. It will be our sons and daughters, our nieces and nephews, our grandchildren. The leaders who send young people to die must take the consequences of this conflict with the seriousness it deserves — with life and death seriousness. Instead, they seem to be treating war with Iran like a game, as if Commander in Chief was a costume, “Secretary of War” is a fun pretend title, and the lives lost are just numbers on a board with the title card Operation Epic Fury. Forty-eight hours after he started this war, Trump finally addressed the American people and took questions. He spoke to the people who are worried sick about what this war means for them and for the people they love. Instead of offering a plan, however, he talked about renovations to his gold-encrusted ballroom. It’s sickening. And it is time for Congress to make him stop. So here’s what we need right now: - Every single Senator must support Senator Kaine’s War Powers Resolution to block this reckless war. This isn’t about politics. This is about life and death for young Americans who will be called on to serve and for civilians who will end up in harm’s way.
- The U.S. must investigate the bombing of an elementary school in Iran. Israel claims its military was not aware of any operations in the area by their own IDF. That raises the question of whether it was a US strike and how that happened. We must find out what happened and hold those responsible to account.
- And we need to hold accountable every single Trump administration official who lied to the American people about this unconstitutional war. People have a right to the truth from their government, and nowhere is that more crucial than in the life and death decisions surrounding the decision to go to war.
We must hold our elected officials accountable if they don’t level with the people who will be sent to fight and possibly to die. Along with many of you, I am angry at what this administration is doing. I feel grief for those killed in this conflict. I feel anguish for the families at home trying to make sense of why their beloved husbands, wives, sons, daughters, moms, and dads are sent into a war that no one can explain. I will keep fighting for an end to this war. Elizabeth  | 
