We Must Not Go to War with Iran

Thank you very much for joining me on an issue of enormous consequence for our country today the New York Times reported that, and I quote at a meeting of President Trump's Top National Security Aids Last Thursday Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as a hundred and 20000 troops to the Middle East end of quote to fight Iran Let me Be as clear as I can be a war with Iran would be an absolute disaster as former General Anthony Zinni stated Quote If you like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan you will love the war In a run end of quote I agree with general Zinni 16 years ago the United States committed one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the history of our country by attacking Iraq that war was To the American people based on a series of lies about weapons of Mass destruction we should remember that one of the leading advocates for that war was John Bolton who served then as a member of the Bush administration Incredibly even today Bolton is one of the few remaining people in the world who continues to believe that that war was a good idea Let us never Get that the Iraq war led to the deaths of more than 4400 American troops Tens of thousands of American soldiers were wounded and many very severely hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed in the Iraq War, unleashed a wave of radicalism and the stabilization across the region that we will be dealing with For many many years it was the biggest Foreign policy disaster in the modern history of our country and now based on that disaster that he helped bring about in Iraq it appears the John Bolton wants a war in Iran A war in Iran would, in my view be many times worse than the Iraq War US military leaders have repeatedly told us that if the United States would attack Iran a run would respond with a tax on US troops and allies around the world It would lead to the further destabilization of that region in a way that is unimaginable and we would result in wars that would go on year after year after year and likely cost trillions adults If you want to know what perpetual warfare is never ending war That's. What a With Iran with me the United States Congress must do everything it can to prevent a war with Iran and by the way not in consequentially the constitution of the United States is very clear and that is that it is the Congress and not the President who determines whether or not we go to war and right now. As we did with Yemen I am working hard to see if we can get 51 members of the US Senate as well Was a majority in the House of Representatives to make clear that before the President takes any military action in Iran or any place else he must seek authorization from the Congress taking us into a war without congressional authorization would be unconstitutional and illegal Let me be very clear in telling you that I do understand that Iran pursues a lot of bad policy. This is not a model government by any means it represses its own population massive corruption in that country and it supports militant groups around the area But the United States is strong enough to deal with these issues and others diplomatically working with Allies around the world and that is precisely what we should be doing We do not need to fight another unnecessary war So I ask all of the folks who are watching this program to stand up and fight back on this issue We must not We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged in to a another terrible terrible war which, in my view will impact not only our generation But the general Mission that our children and grandchildren live in as well Thank you all very much