The Trump administration has already built its case for Iran war

Analysis: U.S. officials' words and actions suggest they may turn to the 2001 use-of-force resolution as justification to bypass Congress.

May 18, 2019, 9:23 AM EDT / Updated May 18, 2019, 2:14 PM EDT
By Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump may not need Congress to go to war with Iran.

That's the case his lieutenants have been quietly building as tensions between the two nations have escalated.

The key elements involve drawing links between al Qaeda and Iran and casting Iran as a terrorist threat to the U.S. — which is exactly what administration officials have been doing in recent weeks.

That could give Trump the justification he needs to fight Iran under the still-in-effect 2001 use-of-force resolution without congressional approval.

That prospect is unsettling to most Democrats, and even some Republicans, in part because Iran didn't attack the U.S. on 9/11, in part because there is a reluctance to engage U.S. forces in another theater of war, and in part because many lawmakers believe Congress has given too much of its war-making authority to the president over the years.

-snip-