WASHINGTON: The Trump administration and its allies in Congress presented a shifting new justification Monday for the US attack on Iran, with House Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting that the White House believed Israel was determined to act on its own, leaving the president with a \u201cvery difficult decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republican was speaking late Monday after a classified briefing at the Capitol, the first for congressional leaders since the start of the war, a joint US-Israel military campaign that killed Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has quickly spiraled into a widening Middle East conflict. Hundreds have died, including at least six US military service personnel.<\/p>\n
Johnson said the attack on Iran was a \u201cdefensive operation\u201d because Israel was ready to act against Iran, \u201cwith or without American support.\u201d He said President Donald Trump and his team determined that Iran would immediately retaliate against US personnel and assets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commander in chief has said this is going to be an operation that is short in duration,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe certainly hope that\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remarkable shift in the Trump administration\u2019s stated rationale comes as the hostilities deepen and widen across the region. The president himself estimated the war could drag on for weeks. The administration plans to seek supplemental funds from Congress to support the military effort, lawmakers said, in stark contrast to the president\u2019s America First campaign not to entangle the US in actions abroad.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the \u201chardest hits are yet to come\u201d as the US is determined to continue attacking Iran for as long as it takes with an \u201ceven more punishing\u201d next phase in the war.<\/p>\n
Rubio described what was essentially a potentially ripple effect that he said posed an \u201cimminent threat\u201d to the US<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we knew that if we didn\u2019t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio said that while the US would like to see the Iranian people rise up and be rid of the regime, \u201cthat\u2019s not the objective,\u201d he said. \u201cThe objective of this mission is to make sure they don\u2019t have these weapons that can threaten us and our allies in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s shifting rationale sparks detractors<\/p>\n
Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other administration officials delivered the classified briefing as Congress weighs a war powers resolution that would restrain Trump\u2019s ability to keep waging war without approval from the House and Senate.<\/p>\n
Trump himself, speaking at the White House, laid out four objectives for the war, saying US forces are out to destroy Iran\u2019s missile capabilities, wipe out its naval capacity, stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure \u201cthat the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was our last, best chance to strike \u2014 what we\u2019re doing right now \u2014 and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Trump met repeatedly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they sought to curb Iran\u2019s nuclear program, including last month at the White House.<\/p>\n
Hegseth earlier Monday vowed this is not an \u201cendless war,\u201d even as he warned more US casualties are likely in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n
But Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said: \u201cThere was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warner said he has now heard four or five stated reasons for the attack. He demanded that Trump \u201ccome before Congress, and for that matter, the American people,\u201d to make his case for war \u2014 and the exit plan.<\/p>\n
Several Democrats delivered blistering speeches against the war. \u201cAre we now such an enfeebled nation that Israel decides when we go to war?\u201d said Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, voice rising.<\/p>\n
War powers as a check on presidential power<\/p>\n
The moment is a defining one for Congress, which alone has the authority under the US Constitution to declare war, and for the Republican president, who has consistently seized power during his second term with his own executive reach.<\/p>\n
Trump took the nation to war at a particularly vulnerable time, as the Department of Homeland Security is operating without routine funds because of a standoff with Democrats over their demands to restrain his immigration enforcement operations. The potential wartime costs in terms of lives lost and dollars spent are dividing the parties, and potentially Americans themselves.<\/p>\n
Unlike the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003, which included long debates in Congress in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, or the more recent US military strikes on Venezuela that proved to be limited, the joint US-Israel military attack on Iran, called Operation Epic Fury, is well underway, with no foreseeable end in sight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s worrisome,\u201d Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Smith said of Trump: \u201cHe is not trying to making his case to the Congress or the American people. He unilaterally decided to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Congress has declared war just five times in the nation\u2019s history, most recently in 1941, to enter World War II a day after the Pearl Harbor attack. Over time, presidents of both major political parties have accumulated vast authority to engage in what are often more limited US military strikes.<\/p>\n
Johnson said tying Trump\u2019s hands right now would be \u201cfrightening\u201d as he works to defeat the war powers resolution.<\/p>\n
Even if Congress is able to pass the measure this week, the House and the Senate would be unlikely to tally the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a presidential veto.<\/p>\n
Next steps for Iranian people uncertain<\/p>\n
As the Trump administration encourages the Iranian people to rise up and choose new leaders, there did not appear to be widespread US support for any effort at democracy- or nation-building.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would love to see this regime be replaced,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cIf there\u2019s something we can do to help them down the road, we\u2019d obviously be open to it. But that\u2019s not the objective.\u201d<\/p>\n
A top Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he never bought into the you-break-it-you-own-it concept in wartime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a threat to America, deal with it,\u201d he said over the weekend. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean you own everything that follows.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration and its allies in Congress presented a shifting new justification Monday for the US attack on Iran, with House Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting that the White House believed Israel was determined to act on its own, leaving the president with a \u201cvery difficult decision.\u201d The Republican was speaking late Monday after …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":94523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94524,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94508\/revisions\/94524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}