How Democratic Party Leaders Quietly Support Trump's March to War With Iran

Sen Chuck Schumer D-N Y conducts a news conference in the U S Capitol in Washington on May Photo Tom Williams CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images As President Donald Trump barrels toward a direct war with Iran the greater part powerful Democrats in Congress are issuing statements that are at best tepid and confusing At worst they are cheering escalation Even with a few Democrats on Capitol Hill pushing for a War Powers Resolution and other act to stop Trump from attacking without congressional approval the Democratic Party s the greater part powerful politicians refuse to mount any meaningful opposition to a strike A large number of outright favor direct U S involvement in yet another regime change war Sen Chuck Schumer D-N Y the preponderance powerful Democrat in the Senate where he is the minority leader presents himself as a major opponent of Trump As lately as June for example he boasted about his participation in the No Kings Day mass protest against Trump Yet when it comes to the prospect of a direct war with Iran Schumer is not only supporting Trump but less than three weeks ago was goading the administration to be tough on Iran and not make any side deals without Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s approval If TACO Trump is already folding on Iran the American people need to know about it No side deals pic twitter com T gnekrGhT Chuck Schumer SenSchumer June The United States commitment to Israel s assurance and defense must be ironclad as they prepare for Iran s response he mentioned in a follow-up announcement disclosed on June after Israel attacked Iran The Iranian regime s stated protocol has long been to destroy Israel and Jewish communities around the world Schumer did include a perfunctory nod to talks a strong unrelenting diplomatic effort backed by meaningful leverage The meaningful leverage in question however is bombing Iran something Schumer tacitly supports Hakeem Jeffries D-N Y the majority powerful Democrat in the House responded to Israel s attack with a toothless declaration that was vaguely supportive of war and packed with every pro-Israel cliche in the book Our commitment to Israel s measure is ironclad he explained It is clear that the Iranian regime poses a grave threat to the entire free world There is no circumstance where Iran can be permitted to become a nuclear power Jeffries too mentioned diplomacy but with no urgency As soon as is practical it is imperative to find a rigorous diplomatic path forward and avoid any situation where U S troops are put in harm s way he announced As with Schumer diplomacy is a box to be checked a vague normative preference but not a demand and certainly not a requirement A host of powerful Democrats issued strikingly similar statements They repeatedly reinforced every premise of Trump s pending bombing campaign namely the alleged imminent danger posed by Iran This premise is undermined by U S intelligence assessments and leaks to both the Wall Street Journal and CNN which suggest Iran hadn t decided to make a bomb and would be three years away from producing one if it did If all of the statements look similar it s because according to DropSite and the American Prospect various members of Congress are completely copy and pasting approved language from the American Israel Populace Affairs Committee or AIPAC the flagship pro-Israel lobby group These outlets exposed that in statements on congressional websites and social media nearly members of Congress used nearly identical language about how they stand with Israel and another gave their unequivocal patronage in similar terms but without the magic words Among the influential Democrats pledging their unflinching sponsorship for Israel was Rep Gregory Meeks D-N Y the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Like numerous others Meeks hauled out a talking point about how Israel has a right to defend itself meant to front-run any discussion of Israeli aggression by asserting the premise that any and all military action is inherently defensive It s a dubious premise in most of contexts but especially Orwellian in this one since Israel preemptively attacked Iran based on indicates of an imminent threat in direct contradiction of US intelligence Even if one thinks Israel has a right to defend itself in the abstract under no neutral reading of international law is Israel doing so by bombing another country without legal basis to do so The decidedly unhelpful approaches by powerful Democrats don t end there Rep Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick D-Fla and Sen Jeanne Shaheen D-NH influential members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee respectively both issued mealy-mouthed statements trying to split the baby between diplomacy rhetoric and reinforcing every pretense for U S involvement in Israel s bombing of Iran Anti-Anti-War These non-positions or worse positions in favor of unprovoked almost certainly illegal war are notable precisely because there are particular lawmakers who are at least trying to do something to stop a direct all-out conflict between the U S and Iran According to the latest count by Prem Thakker members of Congress have thrown their weight behind certain kind of effort to stop war These fall into two camps The first is a resolution in both the House and Senate that invokes the War Powers Act which says that only Congress can declare war a principle that has been routinely violated by U S presidents Sen Tim Kaine D-Va is leading this push in the Senate where limited cosponsors have signed on Someone with knowledge of the effort described us that the organizers aren t accepting co-sponsors in a bid to gain bipartisan sponsorship first Reps Thomas Massie R-Ky and Ro Khanna D-Calif are leading the sister effort in the House and it has supporters total including Reps Rashida Tlaib D-Mich and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez D-N Y A total of or percent of House Democrats have lent the bill their advocacy There is another effort afoot too the No War Against Iran Act that was already in motion before Israel attacked Iran on June though it was introduced after the attacks began The Senate bill spearheaded by Sen Bernie Sanders I-Vt would prevent federal funds from being used for a war that s not approved by Congress Sens Elizabeth Warren D-Mass and Tammy Baldwin D-Wisc are among its eight Senate supporters Democratic leaders however are leaving their colleagues out to dry Schumer for instance declined to join Sanders s bill as a cosponsor despite having cosponsored the same effort in This tacit and open backing for Trump s war aren t limited to working leadership the upper echelons of the party establishment have been noticeably silent Democratic elites by and large agree with both Israel s unprovoked attacks on Iran and Trump s direct involvement Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama haven t publicly opposed Trump s reckless threats and build-up to war with Iran Obama for example has re-emerged into the spotlight but made no mention of Iran or Trump s push for war during a masses appearance this week Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton despite frequently criticizing Trump for his military parade detainment of a U S senator and anti-abortion policies hasn t spoken in opposition to a US war with Iran And likewise Democratic nominee Kamala Harris who has been speaking out against Trump has yet to publicly criticize Trump s build up to bombing Iran Surveying these responses somewhere between muted disinterest and consent there s only one plausible conclusion Democratic elites by and large agree with both Israel s unprovoked attacks on Iran and Trump s direct involvement in this potentially catastrophic regime change war It s unlikely the majority Democratic hawks will come out in open endorsement of an attack that carries such political risks like with Iraq years ago things could promptly go off the rails Yet even as party leaders seek to burnish their credentials as the resistance to Trump they re tacitly and sometimes openly giving Trump a green light to lurch America into yet another open-ended war of choice The post How Democratic Party Leaders Quietly Help Trump s March to War With Iran appeared first on The Intercept