Congressional war powers and Iran
Speaking Security Newsletter | Congressional Candidate Advisory Note 7 | 8 May 2020
Identifying hypocrisy
If your opponent is interested in foreign policy and/or is feeling self-righteous, s/he might criticize Trump for his veto of S.J. Res. 68, which was passed by the legislative branch (votes: Senate, House) to prevent him from striking Iran again without congressional approval. At its core, S.J. Res 68 was intended to make war with Iran less likely.
If your opponent does level critique at Trump on these grounds but voted for any of the following, your opponent is being hypocritical.
1. 2001 AUMF (votes: Everyone in Congress in 2001 except for Rep. Barbara Lee)
This was the primary legal cover given by the Trump administration for the Soleimani assassination.
2. 2020 NDAA (votes: Senate, House)
The Senate stripped all of the progressive measures resembling S.J. Res. 68 from the House version when writing the conference bill.
3. 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act (votes: Senate, House)
The main justification from Republicans (and caveat, from Democrats) for the assassination was the threat Soleimani posed to ‘our troops.’ This appropriations act funded the US troop presence in the Middle East that was deemed to be threatened by Iran. (Another expression of how empire’s main purpose is to perpetuate its own existence.)
Here’s a map showing US troop presence in the Middle East in 2017 (not much has changed since then). Under conditions of empire, we are everywhere, and therefore everything looks like a threat (including a country with a GDP about the size of Maryland’s). What this map doesn’t depict is the US naval presence in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, North Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea. ‘Our’ warships have been occupying these waters since the establishment of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in 1995.
^Map via Micah Zenko (2018)
Conclusion
What I’m trying to say is that one cannot be truly anti-war without being anti-imperialist. Sort of like how a police shooting can only happen if a police officer is there in the first place, Soleimani’s assassination was a natural outcome of US military empire — it provided probable cause (a threat to ‘our troops’ artificially inserted in the region) and the legal cover (AUMF, NDAA) to carry the strikes out. Also like police shootings, the response from Democrats is ex post facto, and doesn’t address the most pressing structural factors that led to the violence.
In solidarity,
Stephen (stephen@securityreform.org; @stephensemler)