Last week, President Trump said he had to choose whether or not to “annihilate” Iran.
Our Constitution says he does not have that choice; rather, the choice belongs to Congress to make. To allow President Trump or any other president to make such a choice solely by himself allows a president too much power and increases the probability that such power will be used irresponsibly. Congress must reassert its own war-making powers under the Constitution and thereby help strengthen constitutional government.
Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump said, “I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into Hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
But the choice should be made by the Congress and not by the President. Of course, the President has a perfect right to make his case to the Congress and request a war declaration, as Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt did before World Wars One and Two, or as both Presidents Bush did before requesting and securing authorization to conduct their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Congress, not the President, must have the final say in determining if, when, where, and how war is to be waged, with only one obviously necessary exception: The President requires no congressional authorization to order the armed forces to repel an invasion or any other attack on the United States itself. But to allow the President to otherwise launch wars on his own initiative with no authorization from Congress is to give him too much power, especially the power to inadvertently increase the danger to American national security by embroiling the United States in an unwinnable war.
I first began arguing this point when President Trump launched the war in Iran last February 28. The pushback from local MAGA Republicans was immediate. They argued, accurately enough, that the War Powers Resolution Act of 1973 does, in fact, give the President the power to launch wars without congressional approval, and that previous presidents, Republican and especially Democratic alike, had done exactly that. And they further argued—again, accurately enough—that the current Iranian regime is fundamentally evil, and that its elimination would make the world and especially the Middle East far more peaceful than it now is—a point I agree with, provided the means of eliminating the regime does not lead to a conflagration creating greater danger and chaos or a successor regime even more evil than the current one.
But the fact that a situation is described accurately does not mean the situation is satisfactory. And the fact that Presidents from both parties, both before and after the adoption of the War Powers Resolution Act, launched wars or other military actions without securing prior congressional approval does not mean President Trump should be allowed to do so as well. President Trump is not to blame for creating the precedent for shooting first without congressional approval. But he is exploiting and strengthening precedents established by his predecessors, and which could be further exploited by a future president, whether that president be JD Vance or Marco Rubio, Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris.
If President Trump truly intends to “annihilate” Iran or take any other military action against Iran or anywhere else, he should make his case to Congress. After all, the 60-day deadline for seeking congressional approval for the war against Iran expired long ago. And while the War Powers Act may allow the President to start a war, it does not allow him to continue it without congressional approval.
And Congress should do something it has all too often refused to do in the recent past—Seriously consider the issue and make a legally binding decision to either allow President Trump to act or prohibit him from doing so. Since the Congress is currently led and dominated by Republicans and will remain so at least through December, President Trump should be willing to submit his proposals, whatever they may be, to the Congress, and abide by Congress’s decision, whatever it may be. Indeed, one can wonder why the President would not want to do so.
Requiring the President to seek congressional approval before launching a war or other combat operation will not guarantee that every war launched will enter triumphantly. After all, the wars launched by President Bush 43 in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite congressional approval, proved to be precisely the “forever wars” President Trump had once promised to avoid. But reverting back to constitutional conduct will reduce, if not eliminate, the chance that a rogue president, exercising no judgment other than his own, will get us into a war that ultimately goes worse than our current war or the preceding forever wars. The current precedent by which President Trump operates without congressional approval should be reversed, and a precedent by which both presidential and congressional conduct are in accord with the Constitution should be restored.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville Economic Development Authority since 2018, and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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