January 3, 2020 4:20 a.m.
Congressman Peter DeFazio said a U.S. military strike in the middle east could lead to war.
Early Friday, Middle East time, the action ordered by President Donald Trump, killed Iranian General Qassim Suleimani, a top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. Reports said other military officials also died in the attack at Bagdad Airport in Iraq.
DeFazio said, “if we are not careful, President Trump’s impulsive recklessness will lead the United States into yet another endless war in the middle East”. He said America’s founders ensured that the Constitution grants Congress, not the Executive Branch, the power to declare war, “specifically to act as a check on presidential war-mongering”.
The statement from DeFazio said if the President intends to engage U.S. forces in hostile action, President Trump must immediately convene Congress, share the intelligence that precipitated this strike, and ask for authority under the War Powers Act. DeFazio said “there is still time to stop this risky escalation, but Congress must assert its constitutionally-granted war powers immediately to do so”.