[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 56 (Wednesday, March 25, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1630-S1631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAN

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, I want to speak on the topic of the war in 
Iran.

[[Page S1631]]

  As I am standing here, 3,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne are on 
their way to Iran. These are elite paratroopers who are trained to jump 
into enemy-held territory. They will join 5,000 marines who are being 
sent from Japan and California.
  How did we get here?
  On February 28, President Trump launched this war--something he is 
now calling an ``excursion''--with a massive display of U.S. military 
power and dominance. It was stunning. In the opening days, more than 
8,000 targets were struck in Iran. More than 120 Iranian vessels were 
damaged or destroyed, nearly eliminating Iran's ability to launch 
drones and missiles. Iran's military and civilian leadership was 
decapitated, and that includes the then-Ayatollah, who was the leader, 
now replaced by his son. It was an incredible demonstration of military 
power and execution of military might, just like Midnight Hammer was in 
June.
  Things are different today. We face something completely 
unpredictable, and we have had no discussion or debate about it. We 
face what has happened in Iraq and what has happened in Afghanistan, 
and that is that a country with limited power has asymmetric power. It 
is confronting us with the limits of what can be accomplished with 
military power.
  Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, and to the shock of most 
Americans, there appears to have been very little, if any, planning on 
the part of the folks who pushed us into the war about what would 
happen when the strait was closed. The Iranians really don't need 
massive military power to keep the strait closed. A drone strike or a 
mine that hits a vessel that is going through, whether escorted or not, 
means that Iran has a vote: They can attack.
  It also means international shippers have a vote: Do they want to 
risk their cargo and their crew when that is an active military combat 
zone?
  They have answered that: No. There are hundreds of oil-carrying cargo 
vessels on both sides of the strait that won't proceed through.
  The President has to make a major decision. We have to make a major 
decision. His decision appears to be that he will escalate this war. He 
will put his faith that there is a military solution to resolving an 
outcome. That is despite the experience we have had in which we 
have consistently been shown the limitations of what can be 
accomplished with our extraordinary military.

  By all indications, the President has chosen a path of escalation: 
the marines I mentioned, the paratroopers I mentioned, the massing of 
our military assets in the region, the attacks I outlined, and the $200 
billion request that is coming our way. That is an extraordinary 
request of the American taxpayer. It is $60 billion more than President 
Bush requested in his supplemental to fund the opening months of the 
Iraq invasion in 2003.
  Escalation at this point--and that is the decision that is upon us--
is going to be irresistible. That is in the context of the President's 
getting intelligence assessments from our intelligence community, as 
well as from the Israeli intelligence community, that the hope for the 
collapse of the Iranian regime will not occur. It is intact. They have 
lost many of their leaders, and they have replaced all of those leaders 
whom they have lost.
  So do we expect that this paratrooper expedition and this marine 
expedition can change that? That is a question that this body must 
debate.
  One of the weaknesses of our position right now is that the President 
did bypass Congress in making his decision to go on this 
``expedition.'' The President also bypassed the American people by not 
addressing them and outlining with clarity the goals that he seeks to 
accomplish, the means by which he hopes to accomplish them, and the 
expectation of the sacrifices that American citizens will have to make 
in order to achieve his goals.
  In a democracy, this is not just something that is done because it is 
nice to do. In a democracy, having public backing for a war is not 
optional; it is a strategic necessity for success. There has been no 
effort to engage the public, and, indeed, public opinion of the wisdom 
of this shows that barely 40 percent of Americans support this war and 
that more than 60 percent think our military action in Iran has been 
excessive.
  This reservation that we are seeing on the part of the American 
people about this war is understandable. There has been no explanation 
of the goals and the expectation about an outcome. There has been no 
candor about what this war will cost. And $200 billion as a 
supplemental is a downpayment on more to come; $200 billion is 
literally a $1,400 tax on every single American household.
  The average American family is also going to pay an extra $2,000 at 
the pump with the increase in gas prices. Families in Vermont are going 
to pay $1,000 more to heat their homes.
  Our small farmers in Vermont and in the Presiding Officer's State are 
going to pay about 35 percent more for fertilizer just as planting 
season begins.
  We owe candor to the American people when it comes to what is going 
to be required for this war.
  The other essential obligation we have in making a decision about 
going to war is to the men and women we will ask to go to war because 
of our decision or because of our indecision.
  When I was first in Congress, I attended the funeral of a young 
Vermont marine. He died at the age of 21 in the siege of Fallujah. He 
died on Thanksgiving day. We all honor him as a hero, just like the 
other Vermonters who fell in post-9/11 wars.
  In Vermont, at that point, we had the highest casualty rate on a per-
capita population basis of any State in the Nation.
  We are so proud of the commitment of service that our young 
Vermonters give to our country.
  They step up because they believe in us. They believe that, in a 
democracy, they serve us by volunteering, and they subjected themselves 
to the authority of the Commander in Chief, a civilian. And they will 
show up, and they will serve at the call of the Commander in Chief.
  We, in Congress, have a role to play, and it is to weigh in on the 
decisions of where and when we will send young men and women into 
harm's way. They do their job; we are not doing our job.
  We have had no hearings. We have had no debate. We have had no 
discussion. It is just happening. We are sleepwalking passively into a 
war that could be yet another war in the Middle East.
  Yes, it is true: The Iranian regime is dangerous. Saddam's regime was 
dangerous. The Taliban was dangerous. In the cases of Iraq and 
Afghanistan, we did escalate, and we stayed. You couldn't get out 
because we didn't make a decision. We were there and justified staying 
because we were there in the first place.
  We are at that moment with what is occurring in Iran. And, yes, it is 
an evil regime. Yes, we want them not to have a nuclear weapon. But is 
diplomacy to be abandoned? Is unilateral action to be chosen? Is that 
to be done where we have literally no debate and no discussion?
  It is the wrong decision, and we face very soon a question of whether 
we will support a $200 billion expenditure for that war. The President 
calls it an excursion, but we all know better. We must make a decision, 
and I have made a decision. I will not support $200 billion for a 
military ``excursion'' in Iran.
  The burden of war is borne by those who fight it, the young men and 
the young women who put themselves in harm's way because we sent them 
there. They are the ones who suffer the loss of life, devastation in 
their families, lifelong injuries, PTSD. But the true burden of war is 
borne by those who fight, not by those who decide. Is it not our 
responsibility--our minimal responsibility--to decide? We are not doing 
that. We are passively backing into a war with no debate, no 
discussion, no profound appreciation of what we are asking the young 
men and women of this country to subject themselves to. We owe them 
more than that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

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