Thoughts

I have two sets of thoughts: one regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran, the other regarding war powers.

First:

The Islamic Republic of Iran has long been the gravest threat to peace and stability in the Middle East. It is a murderous oppressor of its own people, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, a rogue regime armed with dangerous ballistic missiles, and, until recently, a threshold nuclear state.

If the Islamic Republic were to fall after four decades of repression and terror, not one American should shed a tear for its demise.

Our sympathies belong not with the oppressor but with the oppressed—the 90 million Iranians who seek the very freedom and dignity that we in the West so often take for granted. My solidarity is with the Iranian people yearning to be free.

Second:

Under the Constitution, the separation of powers is clear: Congress has the power to declare war. The President, as Commander in Chief, has the power to command the military in a war that Congress has authorized. With respect to the war in Iran, authorization has neither been sought by the President nor granted by Congress.

The President cannot constitutionally wage war without congressional authorization unless the nation has been attacked, is under attack, or faces an imminent attack. None of those conditions is present here.

For too long, we have operated under a theory of presidential war powers so open-ended that it lacks anything resembling a limiting principle. The issue before us is not Democrat versus Republican, nor progressive versus conservative. It is Congress versus the President. It is Article I versus Article II.

The Founders did not declare independence 250 years ago to replace one king with another. Nor did the Framers intend for the Commander in Chief to wield the unilateral war-making authority of an 18th-century English monarch.

The notion that a President can plunge the United States into a regional war in one of the most volatile places on earth—without even briefing Congress, much less securing its authorization—is irreconcilable with the text, structure, and history of the Constitution.

Instead of playing second fiddle to an imperial presidency, Congress must reclaim its rightful place as the first branch of government—exactly as the Founders intended. We are Article I for a reason. It is time we start acting like it.