Absolutely outrageous

How many will die because of Donald Trump's lust for power before Congress does their Constitutional duty?

I am enraged this morning

Last night I shared Iftar with Muslim friends as they broke their fast during Ramadan. We talked about family, faith, and the hope that our kids might inherit something better. I woke up this morning to news that Donald Trump has launched an attack on Iran. Thirty-five years after Desert Storm. After Iraq. After Afghanistan. After trillions spent and thousands of lives lost.

We were supposed to have learned something.

Instead, this administration is placing our brave service members in harm’s way again with no justification and no vote of Congress. Let’s be clear about what that means. This is not just Trump’s failure. This is the failure of a Republican Congress that has abandoned its constitutional duty. Majority Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson have refused to act. They have chosen to serve as nothing but doormats for an out of control president who toys with American lives like a child.

Plumes of black smoke were seen rising above an area near the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet (BBC)

Every member of Congress swears an oath to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump. The power to declare war does not belong to one man. It belongs to the people, through their representatives. Johnson and Thune know that. Ann Wagner knows that. And they have decided that protecting their political careers matters more than protecting the men and women in uniform. Lives will be lost in this completely unnecessary and illegal war, and their fingerprints will be on it.

Ann Wagner breaks her silence to surrender again

Ann Wagner’s constant silence and cowardice in the face of executive overreach makes her as complicit as Trump. She does not get to hide behind vague statements about “supporting our troops” while refusing to demand a war powers vote.

She does not get to shrug while the Constitution is trampled. Silence is a choice. She keeps choosing it.

Just now, after the attacks, she chimes in that she is all in.

“For nearly fifty years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has proven itself to be utterly committed to violence, chaos, and instability. Iran and its terrorist proxies have repeatedly attacked US forces and our allies in the region.

The United States, along with the support from many of our allies around the world, will no longer allow this regime to wreak havoc at will. The Trump Administration made every diplomatic effort to resolve this matter, and still, the Ayatollah refused. May he and his tyrannical regime now reap the consequences, and may the Iranian people finally have the ability to take control of their own future.

As the President stated, Operation Epic Fury is a clear and necessary action to raze the Iranian ballistic missile industry to the ground, annihilate the Ayatollah’s navy, and ensure Iranian terrorism and nuclear threats can no longer destabilize the globe. The multiple statements of support from across the Western world illustrate the importance of this action.

I ask everyone to join me in praying for the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who have answered the call of duty to keep us safe.”

This is all idiotic, “every diplomatic effort?” Trump sent his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has absolutely no role in the U.S. government to “negotiate.” Our allies in the region are angry because they were working with us to find a solution and we simply ignored them and attacked without warning.

Those statements of support are from nations that didn’t send their own troops or weapons. It’s easy to be all in for a war when you have no skin in the game for the consequences.

This is not to say Iran’s leadership hasn’t been a malignant evil plaguing the world for decades. They are complicit in terror around the globe and the attacks on Ukraine. But, that doesn’t give the U.S. President carte blanche to execute a war without the Congress and the American people behind it.

There are a lot of bad people in the world but we don’t have the President doesn’t have the legal right to kill them at will.

I’m not defending Iran. I am defending our Constitution.

The decision to send our nation to war resides with Congress and for too long they have abandoned that duty for political expediency.

I know how this goes

I have been to war four times. I know exactly what this costs. Donald Trump and his enablers posture and pound their chests while gambling with other people’s children and lives.

Both of these men are dead now. That’s what happens in war.

There is a price and it’s real to those who experience it. It’s not a theory. It’s not distant. It’s late nights waiting for a phone call for military families. It’s leaders sending men and women into harms way. It’s innocent civilians caught in the cross fire.

If I sound angry, it is because I am.

Congress, including Ann Wagner, must return to Washington immediately and vote on a war powers resolution. Missourians deserve a representative with the backbone to stand up when it matters.

They deserve a leader that will defend our Constitution.

I will not be silent. And neither should you.

Those cheering for war won’t be the ones paying the price.