The No New Wars President Is Beating the War Drums
Will Congress do anything about the impending bombing of Iran?
Weird War Tales
As President Donald Trump amasses the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East since the onset of the Iraq War, he’s done very little to convince Congress or the public why it’s necessary—or, for that matter, what it’s even for.
After ordering strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last July, Trump declared the country’s production capabilities to have been “completely and totally obliterated.” In an interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law on Fox News last Saturday, though, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said Iran is “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.” Clearly, Trump’s assessment of last summer’s strike was his typical poppycock, or Witkoff’s is (or both), but does that mean we’re simply back to where the Iran hawks, Benjamin Netanyahu, and others have been saying we are for the last three decades? Needless to say, lawmakers aren’t convinced the administration is being forthcoming about the true state of play.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Wednesday that he has not seen any evidence to back up Witkoff’s nuclear enrichment claims. Asked what his questions were for the White House regarding our expanded military presence in the region, Reed replied broadly, “What’s the purpose? What’s the objective?”
Other top lawmakers are similarly alarmed.