Trump's war on Iran is illegal and immoral

Michigan’s Justin Amash is proof that anyone who claims to hold *any* libertarian views has no place in Trump’s Republican Party.

He quit the party after he voted to impeach Trump the first time in 2019. As the only member of Congress from the Libertarian Party, he voted again to impeach Trump in 2021. And—in true libertarian fashion—he says he’d vote to impeach every president.

Of course, his libertarianism ends where a uterus begins. He’s basically Mike Pence when it comes to abortion rights. Still, other than that, he’s about as consistent as a libertarian comes in America these days, where the term “liberty” has become code for forcing religious rules—which you probably don’t even follow—on others.

As a member of the House, he provided detailed explanations of his votes on social media and consistently appealed to the limits of government power. Even believing voters deserved an honest explanation makes Amash an exception in America’s right.

This is illegal

Trump started a war by bombing nuclear facilities that had been effectively neutralized under the nuclear deal America and our allies made with the UN Security Council and the European Union. If that attack is legal in any way, the regime will claim that legality through the War Powers Act.

On X, Amash destroyed that argument with his explanation that the War Powers Act permits a war of choice, such as the one Trump launched on Saturday and in 2020. Since I hate to send people to Elon’s Machine for Fascism, I’m posting Amash's text here:

One of the most frequently misrepresented federal statutes—often falsely used to justify unconstitutional presidential war powers—is the War Powers Resolution (or Act) (50 U.S.C. §§ 1541-1550).

If only more people would read it.

Contrary to what you may have heard about the War Powers Resolution, it does not allow the president to take military action for any reason for 60-90 days without congressional approval so long as the president notifies Congress within 48 hours.

Section 1541(c) of the War Powers Resolution states clearly:

"The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."

Of the three cited authorities, not one indicates a presidential power to take unilateral (without Congress's approval) offensive military action.

The first two authorities allow the president to take offensive military action but only with Congress's express approval (Article I of the Constitution grants Congress the exclusive power to declare war). The third authority allows the president to take defensive military action without Congress's approval in the event of a specific type of national emergency, a sudden unforeseen attack on the United States (happening too quickly for Congress to meet) necessitating immediate action to protect Americans.

It's for this last situation (or for situations in which the president introduces forces into hostilities unlawfully) that the War Powers Resolution provides for the oft-mentioned 48-hour report to Congress (§ 1543) and 60-day (up to 90-day) timeline (§ 1544). If there's an attack in progress on the United States (i.e., currently happening), we expect the president to respond swiftly to neutralize the attack and protect Americans—and then we will hold the president to account.

The Framers of the Constitution agreed at the debates in the federal convention of 1787 that the president should have the "power to repel sudden attacks" but not the power to otherwise introduce forces into hostilities without congressional approval.

The War Powers Resolution does not confer any new authority on the president to take offensive military action without congressional approval—nor could it under our Constitution. It instead checks the president when, as the Framers contemplated, the president introduces our Armed Forces into hostilities to repel a sudden attack.

Marcy Wheeler adds that the attack "is illegal under the UN Charter, under War Powers Act, and didn't even comply with [the] National Security Act."

Rep. Sean Casten—even while misguidedly saying he’s open to war on Iran!—explained why Trump’s actions are inherently illegal under the War Powers Act, thus grounds for impeachment and removal from office.

This is immoral

Casten concedes there aren’t the votes to impeach or remove Trump right now. That doesn’t mean we need to abandon all hope. It means this becomes part of the larger effort to mass mobilize against Trump’s fascist agenda.

In 2019, Congress voted to stop Trump from using the War Powers Act to draw us into a war in Yemen that had become a proxy war against Iran. That was the first time in 45 years that Congress had used its authority to try to stop a war. Trump vetoed it, and there weren’t enough votes to override it. And that’s where we get to the limits of any argument against this war that hinges on legality.

What’s going on here is fundamentally immoral and cancerous to America’s stability and ability to retain any freedoms we still have.

Trump is flailing

Calling starting a war that could kill millions a “distraction” makes that word meaningless. It’s all part of the same story of Trump faking emergencies to claim powers he doesn’t have. It’s what he’s done since January 20th. And it’s what wannabe dictators always do.

“The way authoritarians seize and keep power is to generate both domestic and foreign enemies,” Andrea Pitzer wrote.

“What Trump is seeking is not to become popular, though he likes that people get some erotic thrill from seeing Trump display his power. What Trump is seeking is capitulation. The act of subjugation,” Wheeler explained. “And I think he was vulnerable to Bibi bc that wasn't happening elsewhere.”

Trump is unpopular. His agenda is repulsive. And the Republicans who abet him want to follow him like automatons, but the stink of failure easily unmoors them.

He’s seeking a way to restore his veneer of being impervious to dissent. Your mass mobilization has cracked that veneer, the crackup with his biggest donor, and Trump's general inability to govern or inspire confidence as a leader have all cracked that veneer. He wants it back.

And he doesn’t care who he kills doing it.

We do care 

Caring is our burden and it’s our strength. 

We’re about to face a week where we fight like hell to kill Trump’s Murder Budget in the Senate. But first, let’s let Congress know we know what powers they have and how anyone who isn’t voting to stop Trump is an accomplice to the horrors that have been unleashed. 

Give your reps a call to demand an emergency session of Congress to prevent Trump’s war on Iran from escalating.

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