Passed unanimously in the House of Representatives on Tuesday night, an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2019, which itself passed the House on Thursday, warns the Trump Administration that they have no legal authorization for a military attack on Iran.
The amendment was offered by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), and was very simply worded. It simply declares that it is the sense of Congress that neither the NDAA nor any other act authorizes the use of military force agaist Iran.
The amendment became particularly important after President Trump withdrew the US from the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran. Analysts have warned that this move, followed by a litany of demands from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was setting the stage for a US war.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said the amendment sends a clear message to the Trump Administration that “Congress has the power to decide issues of war and peace.” Whether this remains in the final version of the NDAA remains to be seen.
The Senate version does not appear to contain a comparable amendment, and that means it is possible that the final reconciled House and Senate version of the NDAA might remove this language. Given a number of outspoken hawks and a unanimous vote, it seems likely many are expecting this amendment won’t survive the final bill.
That’s so cute, Congress thinks the Executive cares what they have to say.
That’s ok though, cause the battle will take place in Syria.
Jason is right to be skeptical that this amendment will ultimately stand, because there is language in the NDAA which specifically *does* call for military action against Iran’s “destabilizing influence” (section 1225). Tulsi Gabbard talks about it here —
https://mobile.twitter.com/TulsiPress/status/999107378002972672/video/1
Only Congress makes war. No! American God [Rev 19:11] does it first and only then can Congress declare a war.
In Short, Christian America makes war first and then the politicians. But what if most Christians do not know Rev 19?
Not to fret, clergy does!
All the above writ maybe, maybe not true?
Perhaps after the fiasco of “who voted for the Iraq War” Congresscritters are wary of being forced to vote for war.
They’ll just try to back door it instead, to avoid open public responsibility for their actions.
This will force Israel to spend more money and influence trying to win back the Democrats that are feeling left out. They’ll still kill the amendment in the Senate. It’s just going to be used as a stick to extract more $$ from Adelson, et. al.
Most of this money, would come from the American taxpayer.
$10.1 million in military aid each day it gets, how that for service, i think its disgusting http://ifamericaknew.org/stat/usaid.html
You mean tha American children and grand children The American tax payers don’t even pay enough taxes to cover the interest on our debts even with less than zero interest rates .
Keith Ellison could being tying Trumps hands with congress passing this no war amendment To bad the democrats did not pass this law before we attacked Libya and Syria . The American people are sick of all this U.S. bombing and wars . Now the democrats have 2 peace candidates to run against Trump in the next election .
Pretty sad and weak to have to say which country we can’t attack…..guess it’s better than nothing.