Udall: Trump needs to make case for war
NM senior senator wants Congress to have the final word
President Donald Trump needs to make his case to Congress if he wants the U.S. to go to war with Iran, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall says.
And New Mexico’s senior senator told the Journal he doesn’t believe the president can.
“I don’t think there’s a case to be made,” Udall said. “There isn’t a case to be made as far as oil is concerned because we’re a country that’s now producing 12 million barrels of oil a day. We’re now the biggest oil producer (in the world). We’re now on the path on the state level and local level, and I’m pushing at the national level to move us toward more renewable industry . ... On the energy front, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
He also doesn’t think it makes any sense in terms of national security even as tensions have risen between the two countries in recent weeks. According to The Associated Press, Iran warned it would increase its nuclear enrichment passed limits agreed to in the 2015 nuclear deal that the Trump administration pulled out of. And the president recently called off an attack on Iran within 10 minutes of happening following attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf the administration blamed on Iran, and the shooting down of a U.S. drone by Iran.
Udall said Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries where the U.S., has fought wars, didn’t have the ability to strike America directly.
He also said the called-off attack exposed flaws in the national security decision-making in the White House. Udall said national security officials said the president should have known earlier in the process how many casualties would have been caused in the attack, which was a reason Trump gave for calling it off.
“I believe in a good, solid process, he would have learned that a little bit before,” the Democrat said. “When he was authorizing them to go forward, he should have known what the attack was going to be about.”
Udall believes the president is being pressured by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton to go to war in Iraq, describing the two as “hawkish.”
“This looks and sounds like to me the run-up to the war in Iraq,” he said. “I don’t believe the Congress or the American people support another war in the Middle East. When you get out and talk to people, you find out there just isn’t any support for another one of these endless wars.”
Udall has been one of the most vocal critics opposing action against Iran in Congress. He offered an amendment to the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act that was defeated in the last vote before the Fourth of July holiday break.
“I actually wasn’t disappointed at all,” Udall said of the vote. “I feel it was a significant achievement getting a majority of the Senate, 51 senators, including four Republicans to weigh in and say, ‘Mr. President, if you want to get into a war with Iran, you better come to us. It isn’t your call to get into a war with Iran.’ It’s the Congress’ call, according to the Constitution.”
He expresses the hope the amendment will be included in the final version that goes to the president’s desk. Udall said Democratic and Republican lawmakers intend to offer the amendment to the House version of the bill, which will be voted on next week. He believes the amendment will remain after a conference to combine the two bills.
“The reason it was put into our Constitution that Congress alone should declare war is because they (the Founding Fathers) didn’t want anyone other than the people’s representatives going to war,” Udall said. “It didn’t matter the president or the party of the president. They were all too familiar with kings and queens going to war in Europe. And many times, the wars made no sense to the people, who wanted to have a peaceful existence but were forced into service in armies and into war.”