[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 4 (Wednesday, January 8, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S65-S66]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  Iran

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last night Iran fired more than a dozen 
ballistic missiles at two military bases in Iraq where American troops 
were based. It was a brazen escalation with dangerous implications for 
the United States and the world.
  We are fortunate. As of today, at this moment, none of our personnel 
have been reported to have been harmed, but the outrageous act was a 
clear and unsurprising retaliation to President Trump's killing of 
Iranian General Soleimani.
  Our first order of business must be the safety of our military and 
civilian personnel in Iraq and the region, and I call on the Trump 
administration to make that the highest priority. Another immediate 
requirement is that the Congress step up and play one of the most 
important and long-neglected constitutional roles that we can envision. 
Article I, section 8, of the U.S. Constitution is clear in stating that 
the power to declare war is an explicit authority and power of 
Congress, as it

[[Page S66]]

should be. One should never send our sons and daughters into conflict 
without the knowledge and consent of the American people. Our Founding 
Fathers were wise in making sure that this awesome power did not rest 
with a King-like leader but with the people's elected representatives. 
I have made this same argument regardless of whether the occupant of 
the White House was a Democrat or a Republican.
  Some have had the audacity to argue that the 2001 authorization for 
the use of military force approved by this Congress to respond to the 
September 11, 2001, attacks or the 2002 AUMF, the war with Iraq, apply 
to the situation today in Iran. That is clearly wrong.
  Let me be clear. I cannot imagine that anyone--anyone--who took 
either of those votes nearly 20 years ago--and I was here at that 
time--thought that they were approving a war with Iran two decades 
later. I certainly didn't.
  This Congress should not be a troubling rubberstamp for President 
Trump's worst instincts by marching into another war in the Middle 
East. Simply, it is time for Members of this important body to show 
some courage and do their constitutional jobs. If you want a war with 
Iran, step up and face your constituents and record your vote 
accordingly.
  The War Powers Resolution I filed last week, with the leadership of 
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, will be a first step regarding 
Congress's role in any conflict with Iran but not a last step. 
Ultimately, this President cannot start a war with Iran without the 
approval, under the Constitution, of Congress, and the Republican 
leadership should not roll over and play the role of lapdog when it 
comes to such a serious, life-and-death matter.
  Tragically, this escalation with Iran--and the heightened risk to our 
personnel and security interests--was entirely predictable, except, it 
appears, to President Trump and Secretary Pompeo. The question was 
never the simplistic canard over whether killing Soleimani, a genuinely 
loathsome terrorist actor, was warranted or not, but, clearly, whether 
taking him off the face of the Earth was in the best interest of the 
United States.
  Would such an act really advance the cause and interest and policies 
of our country or precipitate another war in the Middle East? The 
answer is increasingly upon us, and we here must debate this crisis 
before President Trump drags us even closer to this precipice.
  Mr. President, sadly, President Trump's erratic and incoherent 
policies toward Iran have greatly contributed to the current crisis.
  Before taking office, Iran's nuclear weapons program was halted in a 
historic agreement President Obama negotiated in cooperation with our 
European allies, China, and Russia.
  Iran continued its malign behaviors in the region, but containing 
them was much easier without the threat of a nuclear bomb.
  President Trump petulantly withdrew from the nuclear agreement and 
tried to starve Iran of benefits it was to receive from that deal.
  He pursued an incomprehensible erratic policy of regime change by 
trying to flatter and meet with Iranian President Rouhani to negotiate 
a supposedly better deal . . . threating Iran militarily . . . and 
tightening sanctions.
  Those efforts were going nowhere. Iran was lashing out at American 
interests, we were alienated from our key allies, and Iran inched 
closer to restarting its nuclear program.
  And in just the last week alone, President Trump's impulsive actions 
managed to reverse the recent Iraqi protest sentiment that wanted Iran 
to stop meddling in its politics, leading instead to a vote this 
weekend in the Iraqi parliament to expel all U.S. forces.
  Similarly, after months of anti-government protests in Iran, he 
almost instantaneously united Iranian public opinion in hostility 
toward the U.S.
  Iran now announced it is restarting its nuclear program and our 
interests around the region are on high alert and are at risk from 
further Iranian attack for considerable time to come.
  Tragically, all President Trump has to show for his foolish, quote, 
``maximum pressure'' campaign is an enflamed region, attacks on our 
personnel, the U.S. military potentially being evicted from Iraq, 
greater U.S. troop deployments to the Middle East, and an America less 
safe and on the brink of war.
  Most certainly not ``all is well.''
  Have we learned nothing from the thousands of lost lives and injuries 
and trillions of dollars spent on the war in Iraq--a war sold to this 
country on false pretenses?
  Are we going to be led to yet such another fiasco by some of the same 
voices around President Trump who have yet to account for their 
failures in their disastrous war in Iraq?
  Will my Republican colleagues finally show some backbone to an 
unchecked, uninformed, and untrusted President about to bumble into 
another war in the Middle East?
  For the sakes of the sons and daughters who would be sent to any war 
with Iran, I certainly hope so.
  I see that my colleague from Illinois is here and has asked for 
permission to speak on the floor.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.