Lawmakers question basis for war

Democrats cast doubt on 'imminent threat' claim as some MAGA voices denounce attack

- By Kevin Rector

U.S. Navy U.S. SAILORS prepare to load an F/A-18F Super Hornet on the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier Saturday.

According to President Trump, the United States attacked Iran because the Islamic Republic posed "imminent threats" to the U.S. and its allies, including through its use of terrorist proxies and continued pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world,” he said in a recorded statement Saturday.

According to leading Democrats in Congress, Trump’s justification is questionable, especially given his claims of having “completely obliterated” Iran's nuclear capabilities in separate U.S. bombings last June.

“Everything I have heard from the administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and part of a small group of congressional leaders — the Gang of Eight — who were briefed on the operation by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

That divide is bound to remain an issue politically heading into this year’s midterm elections, and could be a liability for Republicans — especially considering that some in the “America first” wing of the MAGA base were raising their own objections, citing Trump's 2024 campaign pledges to extricate the U.S. from foreign wars, not start new ones.

The debate echoed a similar if less immediate one around President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, also based on claims that “weapons of mass destruction” posed an immediate threat.

Those claims were later disproved by multiple findings that Iraq had no such arsenal, fueling recriminations from both political parties for years.