WASHINGTON — Congress, which never authorized the war against Iran but never fully objected to it, now must confront the consequences of President Donald Trump’s nearly four-month military campaign, according to the Associated Press. The deal Trump struck to end the war has left lawmakers on both sides assessing the costs: lives lost, billions spent, and a reshaped Middle East.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the outcome represented a strategic failure. “Pathetic. Failure. Inevitable conclusion of a combination of never making the case to the American people, flawed strategic vision, lack of grasp of the regional dynamics,” Coons said. “How many ways, can I say, bad, bad, bad?”
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a former chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, offered a contrasting view. “We are safer today,” Johnson said, attributing the improved security to the president’s actions during the conflict.
Congress’s relationship to the war has been complicated throughout. Lawmakers never authorized the use of military force, according to the AP, but they also never fully objected through legislation that would have forced an end to hostilities.