More than a month after the Trump administration launched Operation Epic Fury alongside Israel, the war is still widening. The U.S. and Israel are continuing strikes inside Iran, Iran is still disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and the Pentagon is sending more American forces into the region.
Thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division are arriving in the Middle East, adding to recently deployed Marines, sailors and Special Operations forces. The fighting has killed more than 3,000 people across the region and pushed average U.S. gas prices above $4 a gallon as energy markets react to the crisis.
The Trump administration says it does have a strategy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the United States aims to destroy Iran’s missile and drone capabilities, along with key naval and air assets, and that the operation could be completed in “weeks, not months.” Rubio also said the U.S. could reach those goals without sending ground troops into Iran, even as the military build-up continues.
But for Congressman Joaquin Castro of San Antonio (D), the deeper questions are not just military. They are constitutional, strategic and economic.
In a statement issued after the first U.S. strikes on Feb. 28, Castro accused President Donald Trump of dragging the country into “yet another war in the Middle East” and said the conflict was being carried out “without legal authorization, or consultation with the Congress.”
He called for lawmakers to vote on a War Powers Resolution to stop the war. Castro’s argument rests on the Constitution’s allocation of war powers to Congress, including the power to declare war.
That constitutional debate has not gone away. The Republican controlled Congress has so far failed to rein in the president’s actions. In early March, the Senate voted 53-47 against advancing a war powers measure, and the House later rejected a similar resolution, 219-212. Those votes gave Trump political room to continue the campaign, but they did not settle the underlying argument over whether the president can sustain this kind of military action without explicit congressional approval.
Castro is also expected to focus on what remains unclear about the war itself: what the actual endgame is, how success would be measured, and how much more the public may be asked to bear.
Even as the administration describes its objectives in military terms, the conflict is already affecting Americans through higher fuel prices, global market instability and the growing risk to U.S. servicemembers sent into an increasingly volatile region.
Guest:
Joaquin Castro (D) is the U.S. Congressman from the 20th District of Texas.
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