Congress looks for exit plan as West Asia crisis drags on

President Donald Trump took the United States to war without a vote of support from Congress, but lawmakers are increasingly questioning when, how and at what cost the war with Iran will come to an end.

Three weeks into the conflict, the toll is becoming apparent. At least 13 US military personnel have died, and more than 230 have been wounded.

A USD 200 billion request from the Pentagon for war funds is pending at the White House. Allies are under attack, oil prices are spiking, and thousands of US troops are deploying to the Middle East with no endgame in sight.

“The real question is: What ultimately are we trying to accomplish?” Sen Thom Tillis, R-NC, told The Associated Press.

“I generally support anything that takes out the mullahs,” he said. “But at the end of the day, there has to be a kind of strategic articulation of the strategy, what our objectives are.”

Trump said late Friday that he was considering “winding down” the military operations even as he outlined new objectives and goals.

The Republican president’s decision to launch the US-Israel-led war with Iran is testing the resolve of Congress, which is controlled by his party. Republicans have largely stood by the commander in chief, but will soon be faced with more consequential wartime choices.

Under the War Powers Act, the president can conduct military operations for 60 days without approval from Congress. So far, Republicans have easily voted down several resolutions from Democrats designed to halt the military campaign.

But the administration will need to show a more comprehensive strategy ahead or risk blowback from Congress, lawmakers said, especially as they are simultaneously being asked to approve billions in new spending.

Trump’s quip that the war will end “when I feel it in my bones” has drawn alarm.

“When he feels it in his bones? That’s crazy,” said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The president’s party appears unlikely to directly challenge him, even as the conflict drags on. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the military operation will be over quickly.

“I do think the original mission is virtually accomplished now,” Johnson, R-La., told the AP and others at the Capitol this week. 

“We were trying to take out the ballistic missiles, and their means of production, and neuter the navy, and those objectives have been met,” he said. Johnson acknowledged that Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the Strait of Hormuz is “dragging it out a little bit,” especially as US allies have largely rebuffed the president’s request for help.

“As soon as we bring some calm to the situation, I think it’s all but done,” Johnson said.

But the administration’s stated goals — of ending Iran’s ability to obtain a nuclear weapon and degrading its ballistic missile supplies, among others — have perplexed lawmakers as shifting and elusive.

“Regime change?” Not likely. Get rid of the enriched uranium? Not without boots on the ground,” Warner said.

“If I’m advising the president, I would have said: Before you take on a war of choice, make the case clear to the American people what our goals are,” he said. The Pentagon has told the White House it is seeking an additional $200 billion for the war effort, an extraordinary amount that is unlikely to win support.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York called the amount “preposterous”.

The Defence Department’s approved appropriations from Congress this year are more than $800 billion, and Trump’s tax breaks bill gave the Pentagon an additional $150 billion over the next several years for various upgrades and projects.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said the country has other priorities.

“How about not taking away funding for Medicaid, which will impact millions of people. How about making sure SNAP is funded,” she said, referring to the health care and food assistance programs that were cut as part of last year’s Republican tax reductions.

“These are things that we should be doing for the American people,” she said.

Many lawmakers have recalled the decision by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks to come to Congress to seek an authorisation for the use of military force — a vote to support his proposed military actions in Afghanistan and later, Iraq. Tillis said Trump has latitude under the War Powers Act to conduct the military campaign, but that will soon shift.

“When you get into the 45-day mark, you’ve got to start articulating one of two things — an authorisation for the use of military force to sustain it beyond that or a very clear path on exit,” he said.

“Those are really the options the administration needs to be thinking about.”