Dear Mr Neece,
Thank you for writing to me and for sharing your thoughts about President Trump’s illegal war with Iran. I believe these strikes — launched without congressional authorization — will go down as one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in American history. The United States has an abysmal track record with military adventures and regime change in the Middle East, and President Trump has failed to learn from that history.
On February 28, President Trump launched an illegal war against Iran without authorization from Congress, as the Constitution explicitly requires. Days later, when the Administration finally came to Capitol Hill to brief Congress and justify their actions, their answers were wholly insufficient. We heard the same recycled arguments justifying war, with even less legal authority than we did when the U.S. went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which were massive failures. In fact, the U.S.’s own CIA coup in Iran in 1953 is in part what led us to this very brutal Iranian regime today.
This Administration has made several different claims about this war’s objectives: first, it was regime change, then it was about preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and now the focus is on degrading Iran’s ballistic missile capability and navy, among other shifting goals. The Administration also claimed it was in response to an “imminent threat” from Iran, before Secretary Rubio admitted that Iran would only strike the United States if Israel attacked first. The truth is, the Administration keeps changing its story because they don’t have a plan or an end goal. They know that regime change is incredibly unpopular with the American people. And we also know that we had verifiable agreements to prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapon – and they were working – but President Trump withdrew from the Iran Deal, only to criticize the new reality that he created and bomb Iran anyway.
The President is putting our service members and our country at immediate risk for retaliation, wasting billions of taxpayer dollars, and setting us up for another endless war. This Administration has said it's prepared for a longer intervention if needed and hasn’t ruled out boots on the ground. On March 2nd, Secretary Rubio said the hardest hits are yet to come. Trump has no plan, and there’s no guarantee how this will go. And this intervention opens up the potential for a more hardline regime, a security vacuum, and civil war.
I take the issues of war and peace very seriously. My generation grew up in the shadow of the forever wars. I was in middle school when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. And it wasn’t until I was 32 years old – and already a Member of Congress – when we finally left Afghanistan. Our military community in San Diego knows better than most the human cost of war, because it’s our service members and military families who make these incredible sacrifices. We know that decisions about if, when, and how the U.S. goes to war can have unintended consequences – because we’ve experienced it before. That’s part of why I came to Congress in the first place: to ensure someone here is thinking about these consequences when the President tries to illegally take our country to war. And by skirting Congress and acting alone, Trump is illegally denying the American people, including our servicemembers, the right to a proper debate.
The President cannot and should not take further illegal action against Iran. It should be up to the Iranian people who lead them, not the whims of President Trump. That’s why I voted for Congressman Ro Khanna and Congressman Thomas Massie’s bipartisan resolution to reassert our congressional war powers and prevent further war with Iran. And it’s why I will oppose any defense supplemental to fund this reckless war.
Thank you again for your message. I’m so grateful to people like you who reach out and advocate for our community and the future of our country — our democracy only works when everyone gets involved! If you have any additional questions or comments, please feel free to call my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 225-2040 or my San Diego office at (619) 280-5353. You can also subscribe to receive my newsletter or send me another message at sarajacobs.house.gov.
Sincerely,
Rep. Sara Jacobs
Member of Congress
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