American media wondered on Friday: “Are we at war?”.
Citizens would answer yes, because that is the only way to explain that refueling the car tank now costs them twice as much compared to February 28, when that supposedly lightning military campaign called Epic Fury started.
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The world has not realized, but Trump, who considers himself chosen by God and portrays himself as a Jesus Christ in the AI era, grants himself the ability to “stop the clock” and, therefore, being in a truce, there is no longer an armed conflict. This is the position of his team to avoid the procedure in the Capitol, despite the president asking allies again to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a situation that existed prior to that last day in February when the bombings began.
White House sources indicated that the military operation against the Tehran regime, “for the purposes of the War Powers Resolution,” had already “ended” after the ceasefire agreement reached this past April 7, and still in effect, between the United States and Iran.
Friday marked 60 days since the U.S. government formally notified Congress about the conflict. That two-month margin marks the deadline by which the executive must obtain authorization from legislators to continue military efforts. But the president considers that the truce pauses that period and, therefore, the limit has not been reached.
Similarly, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (he much prefers to be called Secretary of War, the unofficial name of his department) stated on Thursday at the Senate Armed Services Committee that the count stopped when military operations were interrupted. The law, intended to control presidential actions, was passed in 1973 as a consequence of the Vietnam War.
“We are in a ceasefire right now, which, according to our interpretation, means the 60-day period stops,” Hegseth argued in that appearance.
Democratic Senator Tim Kane questioned this reasoning. He stated that he did not believe the War Powers Act, which allows the president to deploy U.S. forces in a conflict for up to 60 days without Congressional approval if there is an imminent threat, supported this justification.
Republican Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House and a loyal Trump ally, also told NBC that the United States “is not at war” with Iran.
“I don’t think we have active, kinetic military activity, bombings, shootings, or anything like that. Right now, we are trying to negotiate peace,” Johnson commented. “I would be very reluctant to get ahead of the administration amid these delicate negotiations, so we will have to see how the situation evolves.”
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However, not all Republican legislators agree with this new timeline in which peace is being negotiated, a more than explicit recognition that there is a war.
Two Republican senators, Rand Paul and Susan Collins, joined Democrats on Thursday in their latest attempt to force the Trump administration to withdraw troops from the Middle East. The resolution was defeated by three votes, including one from Democratic Senator John Fetterman, a usual ally of Trumpism.
Collins emphasized that Trump’s military powers “are not exempt from limits.” According to her view, “the Constitution grants Congress an essential role in decisions of war and peace, and the War Powers Act establishes a clear 60-day deadline for Congress to authorize or end U.S. participation in hostilities abroad,” she stressed. “That deadline is not a suggestion, it is a requirement,” she insisted.
Her party colleague John Curtis, who voted against that resolution, promised to withhold his support for additional funding for the conflict until Congress is consulted.
“This is not an adversarial stance against the administration, rather it is a commitment to our system of government,” he wrote in a statement. “It is fundamental to our national security that Iran’s malign capabilities be neutralized, but it is equally fundamental that we do so on a solid constitutional basis,” he reiterated.
Opposition to the Iran war reaches levels similar to those recorded during the Vietnam War in the 70s
This debate takes place at a time when Trump’s war in Iran is as unpopular among Americans as the Iraq war during the year of greatest violence in 2006 and the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. The survey comes amid growing economic unrest and fears of terrorism as a consequence of the military campaign.
61% of Americans, despite 79% support from conservatives, say that the use of military force against the Islamic republic was a mistake, and fewer than two in ten believe that U.S. actions in Iran have been successful.
About four in ten see the war as a failure, while another four in ten believe “it is too soon to tell.” The survey data represent a condemnation of the war effort even though the White House has been trying to convince Americans that they are better off under Trump than with Joe Biden.
