{"id":2396,"date":"2026-03-04T06:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/2396\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T06:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:45:10","slug":"congress-taking-first-votes-on-iran-war-as-debate-rages-about-us-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/2396\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress taking first votes on Iran war as debate rages about US goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. Senate is headed towards a vote Wednesday on President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to embark<\/a> on a war against Iran, an extraordinary test in Congress for a conflict that has rapidly spread across the Middle East with no clear U.S. exit strategy.<\/p>\n

The legislation, known as a war powers resolution<\/a>, gives lawmakers an opportunity to demand congressional approval before any further attacks are carried out. The Senate resolution and a similar bill being voted on in the House later this week face unlikely paths through the Republican-controlled Congress and would almost certainly be vetoed by Trump even if they were to pass.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the votes marked a weighty moment for lawmakers. Their decisions on the five-day-old war<\/a> \u2014 which Trump entered without congressional approval \u2014 could determine the fates of U.S. military members, countless other lives and the future of the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWars without clear objectives do not remain small. They get bigger, bloodier, longer and more expensive,\u201d said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer at a news conference Tuesday. \u201cThis is not a necessary war. It\u2019s a war of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump administration scrambles for congressional support<\/p>\n

After launching a surprise attack against Iran on Saturday, Trump has scrambled to win support for a conflict that Americans of all political persuasions were already wary of entering<\/a>. Trump administration officials have been a frequent presence on Capitol Hill this week as they try to reassure lawmakers that they have the situation under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to put American troops in harm\u2019s way,\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in a raucous news conference at the Capitol Tuesday.<\/p>\n

But six U.S. military members were killed<\/a> over the weekend in a drone strike in Kuwait. <\/p>\n

Trump has also not ruled out deploying U.S. ground troops. He has said he is hoping to end the bombing campaign<\/a> within a few weeks, but his goals for the war have shifted from regime change to stopping Iran from developing nuclear capabilities to crippling its navy and missile programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they are achieving great success with what they\u2019ve done so far,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday, adding that what happens next in the country will be \u201clargely up to the Iranian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost all Republican senators were readying to vote Wednesday against the war powers resolution to halt military action, but a number still expressed hesitation at the idea of deploying troops on the ground in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the American people want to see troops on the ground,\u201d said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., as he exited a classified briefing Tuesday. He added that Trump administration officials \u201cleft open that possibility,\u201d but it wasn\u2019t an option they were emphasizing.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers to go on record<\/p>\n

The votes in Congress this week represented potentially consequential markers of just where lawmakers stand on the war<\/a> as they look ahead to midterm elections and the consequences of the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an end-run around the Constitution,\u201d said Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat leading the war powers resolution. \u201cEverybody\u2019s got to declare whether they\u2019re for this war or against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican leaders have successfully, though narrowly, defeated a series of war powers resolutions pertaining to several other conflicts that Trump has entered or threatened to enter. This one, however, is different.<\/p>\n

Unlike Trump\u2019s military campaigns against alleged drug boats or even Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, the attack on Iran represents an open-ended conflict that is already ricocheting across the region<\/a>. For Republicans who are used to operating in a political party dominated by Trump and his promises of keeping the U.S. out of foreign entanglements<\/a>, the moment represented a bit of whiplash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWar is ugly, it always has been ugly, but we\u2019re taking out a regime that has been trying to attack us for quite some time,\u201d said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who has long pushed Trump to engage overseas, argued that the widening conflict represented an opportunity for Arab and European countries to join in the fight against Iran and the militant groups it supports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind people being on record as to whether or not they think this is a good idea,\u201d he told reporters, but also argued that too much power over the military was ceded to Congress in the War Powers Act, which mandates that presidents must withdraw troops from a conflict within 90 days if there is no congressional authorization.<\/p>\n

House vote looms<\/p>\n

On the other side of the Capitol, House leaders were also readying for an intense debate over the war followed by a vote Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe we have the votes to defeat it, I certainly hope we do,\u201d House Speaker Mike Johnson said after an all-member briefing on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said he expected a strong showing from Democrats in favor of the war powers resolution.<\/p>\n

As lawmakers emerged from a closed-door briefing Tuesday night, Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, implored the Trump administration to \u201ccome to Congress\u201d and speak directly to the American people about the rationale for the war.<\/p>\n

His voice filled with emotion as he said, \u201cOur young men and women\u2019s lives are on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. Senate is headed towards a vote Wednesday on President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[325,1912,1910,38,197,1917,1916,34,196,1866,1915,1914,210,1860,1857,294,81,1913,1911,51,323,1859,1909,771,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-2396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-bill-cassidy","10":"tag-charles-schumer","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-gregory-meeks","14":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-iran-war","17":"tag-john-thune","18":"tag-legislation","19":"tag-lindsey-graham","20":"tag-marco-rubio","21":"tag-markwayne-mullin","22":"tag-mike-johnson","23":"tag-nicolas-maduro","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-tim-kaine","26":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-government","29":"tag-united-states-senate","30":"tag-voting","31":"tag-washington-news","32":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116169560866517074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396","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=2396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}