Congress Must Stop Trump From Blundering Into America's Most Dangerous War in Decades
It’s time for the American people to become fully alert to a dreadful possibility. The United States, led by an erratic chief executive who is frequently ignored even by his closest advisers, may find itself stumbling into its worst war in more than a generation — in spite of publicly-expressed reservations from the president himself and without the Congressional authorization that the Constitution requires. The result could be a perfect storm of danger and distrust, culminating not just in a military emergency abroad but also a simultaneous and serious political crisis at home.
Here’s what’s happening. On May 5, National Security Adviser John Bolton announced that the administration had ordered a carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf region, allegedly in response to “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” of unspecified Iranian threats. A week later, four oil tankers (two Saudi, one Norwegian and one Emirati) were damaged in an alleged “sabotage” attack, which a U.S. official blamed on Iran or Iranian allies — though so far there has been no evidence released that this is the case.
(snip)
On May 13, the New York Times reported that the president was reviewing “updated” military plans that could send a total 120,000 troops the Middle East — a deployment nearly as substantial as American deployments at the height of the Iraq War. Trump disputed the Times report, but then provided this belligerent caveat: “Now would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that. Hopefully we’re not going to have to plan for that. And if we did that, we’d send a hell of a lot more troops than that.” Then, on the 15th, the State Department ordered all “non-emergency” personnel out of Iraq. All of this is happening in the aftermath of the administration’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and its decision to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization.
(snip)
Bolton offers a direct contrast to President Trump. His hostility against Iran is longstanding, consistent and deeply felt. He has a command of history and the facts that the president lacks, and tactical decisions made short of war can easily ratchet up tensions more than the president understands. In other words, Trump can blunder into a strategic box of his administration’s own making. This reality leaves us with a series of blunt and disturbing questions: Is the president’s national security adviser essentially slow-walking America into war? Is a president who ran on ending foreign entanglements about to embroil the United States in its most dangerous conflict since perhaps Vietnam? And is it happening in part because he’s simply too impulsive, erratic and inattentive to create his own coherent foreign policy or to fully command his own team?
(snip)
America must learn the bitter lessons of the recent past. Now is not the time to trust an untrustworthy administration. Now is exactly the time for Congress to reassert its constitutional authority. The message to the Trump administration should be emphatic, bipartisan and unmistakable. There can be no new war without informed congressional consent.
http://time.com/5590697/trump-bolton-iran-war/
= new reply since forum marked as read
