NEW YORK – U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is a candidate for theDemocratic Party’s presidential nomination, has warned that war with Iranwould be “many times worse than the Iraq War,” in response to a report inThe New York Times saying that the Trump administration is reviewing a planto send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East amid growing tensions withTehran.
The idea was reportedly spearheaded by John Bolton, President DonaldTrump’s national security adviser, who served in the George W. Bushadministration at the height of the conflict in Iraq.
“Sixteen years ago, the U.S. committed one of the worst blunders in historyof our country by attacking Iraq,” Sanders said in a video recorded live onPeriscope and posted to Twitter.
He called out Bolton as one of the “leading advocates” of the war, which hecalled the “biggest foreign policy disaster” in modern U.S. history.
“Now, based on that disaster that he help bring about in Iraq, it appearsthat John Bolton wants a war in Iran,” Sanders said. “A war in Iran would,in my view, be many times worse than the Iraq War.”The senator said that he was working to build a coalition in Congress toforce President Trump to ask Congress for authorization if he wants toengage in military action in Iran.Congress authorized Bush to take action in Iraq in 2002, but did notformally declare war. Opponents of the war in Iraq argue that PresidentBush did not have the constitutional authority to essentially declare warin the country.
“I am working hard to see if we can get 51 members of the U.S. Senate, aswell as a majority in the House of Representatives to make clear thatbefore the President takes any military action in Iran or anyplace else, hemust seek authorization from the Congress,” Sanders said in the video.
“Taking us into a war without congressional authorization would beunconstitutional and illegal.”
On his part, President Trump denied the Times’ report on Tuesday, callingthe paper “fake news.”
“Now, would I do that? Absolutely,” Trump told reporters.“But we have not planned for that. Hopefully, we are not going to have toplan for that. And if we did that, we’d send a hell of a lot more troopsthan that.” – APP