Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: Americans Don’t Want Trump’s Illegal War on Iran

We will all pay the costs of this war, though we can’t yet know how high they will be.

Without the Congressional authorization that the Constitution requires, Donald Trump has dragged the United States into war with Iran. On Saturday evening, June 21st, the day of the year with the most daylight, Trump acted in darkness before standing behind the Presidential seal at the White House to try to project strength.

It was a scene that revealed both how desperate Trump is and how dangerous his desperation is for the whole world.

Trump had said he would take “two weeks” to consider his options in Iran. No one needs to see the intelligence to know that nothing could change about Iran’s nuclear program in 24 hours to necessitate these strikes.

Donald Trump has dragged the United States into another unnecessary war because his “America First” agenda is failing at home. He is using big bombs like a little man.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump said he could end Russia’s war against Ukraine before his inauguration. He said he would negotiate an end to the war in Gaza with a phone call. He said Biden was going to drag the US into World War III, but he would be a peace president.

It was all lies.

Trump said he was going to stand up for working people, but he handed the government over to a billionaire before their big bad breakup.

He said he’d bring prices down, but his wild talk about tariffs has created economic uncertainty.

He said his budget was big and beautiful, but the Americans people have seen that it is a big, greedy, ugly, destructive, and deadly proposal to slash Medicaid, take nutrition assistance away from hungry children, and sell off America’s public lands in order to give the wealthy a tax break and pay for more masked men to terrorize US communities.

Trump is desperate for a win, and he decided that Netanyahu’s attacks on Iran’s air defense systems gave him a window to take action and look strong. But this is not a win for the prospect of peace, nor for the American people.

Just two weeks ago, Trump illegally deployed troops to an American city without authorization from Congress. Now he has gone to war without consulting the branch of government that the Constitution grants exclusive power to declare war. The attack on Iran is a radical extension of Trump’s extreme notion that the office of the Presidency gives him power to do whatever he wants with the vast resources of the US government.

According to the most recent polling, only 21% of Americans support the US taking initial military action against Iran.

Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, has refused to call a vote on the war powers resolution that Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, introduced to forbid the President from taking this action. Congressional leadership has again abdicated its Constitutional responsibility to check Trump’s abuse of power.

We will all pay the costs of this war, though we can’t yet know how high they will be. The lives of US service members are at risk, in addition to civilians who are vulnerable to the terrorist attacks that are the inevitable response to this kind of assault. Just ask anyone living in Israeltoday: no one will be able to live in peace as long as we are at war with Iran.

Iran also has the power to cripple the global economy by restricting the flow of oil, driving up prices for everyone. The “supply chain” issues of Trump’s first term could pale in comparison.

Every dollar spent on the war economy, bolstering defenses and replenishing bombs, is money that will be taken away from essential and life-sustaining programs here at home and around the world. It’s no accident that Trump has insisted on funding for his “Golden Dome” in this big, ugly budget bill that would take healthcare away from 16 million Americans.

It would be a mistake in a moment like this to argue military strategy. There are many things we can’t know, but what we do know is clear:

Americans don’t want this war.

Trump doesn’t have the authority to declare war.

Trump’s regime will overstep its authority as long as Congress allows.

For the sake of the global community and this Earth, our common home, Americans must unite to build a movement that meets this madness with a clear and definitive, “No.”

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First published in Common Dreams. Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, and co-chair of the the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. His books include: “The Third Reconstruction: How A Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear” (2016), “Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing” (2018) and “We Are Called to Be a Movement” (2020).

Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is the author of Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for the Common Good.