US Senators back aimless Iran War

Republicans in the US Senate have voted to block a Democratic resolution to stop Trump’s illegal war in Iran.

They defeated the procedural vote to rein in Trump’s military powers by a 47-52 vote. A separate House vote is set for March 5, today.

However, the Republicans are confident they will win.

The supporters of the resolution say that Trump “exceeded his constitutional authority” by launching war alongside Israel.

Under Article II of the US Constitution, presidents can only launch attacks in self-defence in response to an immediate threat. Otherwise, Congress has the sole power to declare war.

And as we have already established, there was no immediate threat to either the US or Israel.

Additionally, as the Canary has previously reported, even former senior US military officials have said that Trump’s war on Iran is illegal. Even the Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran.

Senator Tim Kaine argued that:

even in a classified setting, the Trump administration could produce no evidence, none that the US was under an imminent threat of attack from Iran.

Make your mind up

Trump has claimed that Iran was aiming to rebuild its nuclear programme. Which he also said Israel and the US “obliterated” in strikes last year. However, there was no evidence of any nuclear programme, this year or last.

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency has told NBC News the organisation does not believe Iran has nuclear weapons and:

had not seen elements of a systematic and structured program to manufacture nuclear weapons there.

Trump also claimed that Iran was seeking to develop a long-range missile to attack the US.

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, told reporters that Israel was planning to attack Iran, and this would likely have led to “retribution” against US assets in the region.

But again, Trump contradicted this by saying Iran was the one planning an imminent attack on Israel.

Trump can’t even stick to one lie.

But underneath all of that is the Trump administration’s attempts to frame the whole of Iran’s military and nuclear-energy programs since the Islamic revolution in 1979, as an imminent threat to the US.

Additionally, Iran had been in talks with the US to scale down Iran’s nuclear programme in the lead-up to the US and Israel’s illegal attacks.

And this wasn’t the first time that Israel has bombed Iran during peace talks.

Trump is unhinged. Up to now, he has been attacking Iran without any approval from the US government. Worryingly, he now has that approval, which means he will only become even more dangerous. It’s time that other nations stepped up and stepped in – because otherwise, alongside Netanyahu, he is going to murder thousands more black and brown people.

Featured image via HG