Middle East

MS NOW - When President Donald Trump launched his war of aggression on Iran earlier this year, he suggested it could end in as little as “two or three days.” The toppling of Iran’s government, he predicted, might take a little longer: within “four to five weeks.”

As of today, the U.S. has been at war against Iran for six months. And there is no end in sight. The White House says it’s not even on speaking terms with Iran after an always-shaky ceasefire collapsed last month.

Trump’s quagmire in Iran is one of the most shameful acts of his presidency. He has failed at what he haughtily presumed would be an easy victory — and left Iran strategically stronger and the world worse off than when he started. And what makes it doubly tragic is how much of this catastrophe was foreseeable. At the heart of his failure was a total incuriosity about the plausibility and the likely consequences of the “little excursion” he decided to embark upon.

Sam Smith – Once again this story fails to mention that it is Congress and not the president who gets to declare war. As US News explains, “The Constitution is pretty clear on the subject of which branch of government gets to decide when the United States is at war. It’s Congress. Only Congress has the power to formally declare war.”