For more than two generations, the ruling Iranian regime has made the destruction of the United States and Israel its defining philosophy.
That philosophy superseded all other matters of state, with the exception of a brutal repression at home to remain in power.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei headed a state bent on terrorism, repression and the acquisition of nuclear weapons as a means to secure his theocracy’s power and to have an even freer hand to sow terror around the world, to destabilize free nations and to provide support to fellow autocracies.
The Iranian regime played a generational game of using proxy armies and terror cells to do its bidding around the world, even as it used the pretense of diplomacy to stall for time while it persisted in pursuing nuclear arms. Too many American leaders played along for too long.
President Donald Trump’s decision to at long last confront this threat, after months of failed diplomatic effort and a direct assault aimed at Iran’s nuclear facilities, was no surprise.
Trump repeatedly made clear to Iran what was at stake. He spent months building up, in plain sight, a powerful force in the Middle East even as his rhetoric became more bellicose. And he had his diplomats set high but necessary standards for Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
The ruling mullahs never had any intention of giving up those ambitions. Their hope was to buy time once again to retrench, even as increasingly desperate circumstances at home sparked protests that they quashed through mass murder, imprisonment and torture.
We believe the Iranian people have already judged the U.S. action. As word of Khamenei’s death spread in Tehran, there were howls of joy and dancing in the streets.
We share in that jubilation, but it is tempered by serious concerns.
First, Trump’s engagement in war, absent congressional approval, raises severe constitutional questions. This is not the sort of limited action taken when the U.S. seized Nicolás Maduro, an illegitimate “president” more accurately described as a cartel boss. This is a full-on war with another state, and congressional authorization is what the Constitution requires. ... Either the Constitution matters or it doesn’t. And Trump appears to have decided it doesn’t. Congress should still have a say in this war.
That said, we cannot at this stage support a plan to pass a War Powers Resolution that would require the cessation of all military action against Iran until Congress authorizes this war. Setting aside the political reality that the GOP-controlled Congress won’t pass it anyway, such a step could endanger our fighters and cost us opportunities in battle.
Another major concern is that Trump’s attack appears to lack any strategy for what to do after the decapitation of Iran’s leadership. Wars aren’t won by air. Americans will not support the commitment of ground troops. And American lives have already been lost.
The notion that Iran’s people will take to the streets to reclaim their nation is mostly wishful thinking. It almost never happens that an unarmed populace seizes power. Witness what just happened in Iran as thousands of people were slaughtered for daring to protest. Every indication is that the Iranian regime has a power succession plan and that it will do anything and everything possible to remain in power.
No one can say what the future holds, but the facts today point to a protracted U.S. commitment to battle against a weak but dangerous Iranian army as the Iranian people suffer even greater privation than they do today.
What the world might get from this is an Iran that cannot achieve nuclear power. That is to the good. We will also see a rebalancing of power in the Middle East. But whether that benefits peace and freedom is an open question.
The path we cannot see, for now, is peace for the Iranian people, free of the tyrants that rule them.
Our president has placed us on a road fraught with risks. We must withhold our support for the way he has done it because of our belief that the Constitution does matter.
As for the consequences of his actions, we do believe the world is likely safer.
As for Iran, we can only pray that its people endure, and that its army spares them from their own murderous leaders.
