{"id":114050,"date":"2026-05-14T18:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/114050\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:46:14","slug":"senate-narrowly-backs-trumps-war-on-iran-50-49-peoples-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/114050\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate narrowly backs Trump\u2019s war on Iran, 50-49 \u2013 People&#8217;s World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Senate-Tim-Kaine.png\" alt=\"Senate narrowly backs Trump\u2019s war on Iran, 50-49\"\/>\t<\/p>\n<p>The Senate voted to allow Trump to continue his war on Iran. Here Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine displays sign with Trump quote admitting his illegal war will continue killing people| Credit South China Morning Post<\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON\u2014By one vote, the U.S. Senate backed GOP President Donald Trump\u2019s War on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Technically, 50 senators\u2014all but one of them Republicans\u2013killed a resolution invoking the War Powers Act against Trump. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., a war hawk, missed the vote and did not say why.<\/p>\n<p>The resolution declared the legal 60-day window for war is over, and the troops and planes must come home, unless Congress gives its OK for them to stay and fight. As far as Trump is concerned, the defeat of the War Powers resolution is the equivalent, at least for now, of endorsing the war.<\/p>\n<p>Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began the war of choice on February 28, and while Trump says there\u2019s a ceasefire, right-wing militarist Netanyahu says there isn\u2019t and is bombing Lebanon as well as Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Republican war supporters seized on the cease-fire to argue the 60-day clock should reset\u2014a contention the leaders of the anti-war bloc, Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., scoffed at.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 49 war foes included 44 Democrats, plus Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, longtime war foe Bernie Sanders, Ind,-Vt., and Sen. Angus King, Ind-Maine. The renegade Democrat who voted for Trump\u2019s war was Pennsylvanian John Fetterman, one of the Senate\u2019s most outspoken supporters of Netanyahu.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe time to stop arming Netanyahu and hold him accountable for his crimes against humanity is NOW,\u201d Sanders recently tweeted about the combined U.S.-Israeli bombing of Iran, Israel\u2019s bombing of Lebanon, and its all-out war\u2014armed with U.S.-made one-ton bombs and U.S.-manufactured aircraft\u2014against Gaza and its two million inhabitants.<\/p>\n<p>Merkley told reporters at the time of the vote that while Trump named the war \u201cOperation Epic Fury,\u201d it\u2019s really \u201cOperation Epic Failure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRather than hold President Trump accountable for his reckless warmongering, Senate Republicans again rubber-stamped Trump\u2019s unconstitutional war with Iran,\u201d Merkley opened a later statement. In it, he pointed out that the war has, in some ways, strengthened Iran\u2019s global military and political position.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fetterman did not issue his own statement about his stand as the sole Democrat to support Trump. Instead, he endorsed a pro-war tweet by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. It read in part that Trump \u201cshould direct his skilled military leaders to finish destroying Iran\u2019s conventional military capabilities and eliminating any last remnants of their nuclear program. This is the only way to ensure lasting stability in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In voting to continue the war by sidetracking the War Powers Act invocation, the senators defied the majority of the U.S. people and also prominent war foes, including Sanders, Merkley, and Bishop William Barber II of the New Poor People\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWar is a moral issue, not just a political issue,\u201d said Bishop Barber, who has promised public\/clergy protests against it every Monday a block from the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe use of public money should reflect public values. People of faith must show up in the public square alongside interfaith, multi-faith, and non-faith communities to take local action and bear witness to this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Every public opinion poll since Trump and Netanyahu launched the war has shown a majority of respondents against it. But the most detailed survey, by the Pew Research Center, showed an overall 61% against it to 37% for it. Overwhelming majorities of Democrats and independents opposed it, as did \u00a0 20% of strong Republicans and 30% of voters who lean GOP.<\/p>\n<p>And a majority of those same 3,524 respondents combined of all parties believe the war will last at least six months. An internal Trump War Department memo unearthed by news media in mid-April contained a Pentagon prediction that it would last until at least September.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We hope you appreciated this article. At\u00a0People\u2019s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading\u00a0People\u2019s World\u00a0and the stories we bring you, please\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/peoplesworld.org\/donate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today<\/a>. Thank you!<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCONTRIBUTOR<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplesworld.org\/authors\/mark-gruenberg-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/200x262shearon.jul10-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"Mark Gruenberg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate voted to allow Trump to continue his war on Iran. Here Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine displays&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[467,34,196,81,1289,309,683,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-114050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iran-war","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-senate","13":"tag-trump-administration","14":"tag-u-s","15":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116574420060474148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}