Video: Kaine Speaks on Senate Floor on His Bipartisan War Powers Resolution to Stop Unauthorized War in Iran
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, spoke on the Senate floor on his bipartisan War Powers Resolution to ensure any U.S. participation in hostilities against Iran is explicitly authorized by Congress. The bipartisan resolution, which Kaine introduced on January 29, is privileged and will be called up for a vote in coming days. It would not prevent the U.S. from defending itself or Israel from an Iranian attack.
“I rise to discuss a matter that will likely be before the body next week: a vote on my bipartisan War Powers Resolution to advance the proposition that we shouldn’t be at war against Iran without a vote of Congress,” Kaine said. “I believe very strongly that a war with Iran today is both unnecessary and dangerous.”
“The President says we may need to go against Iran to stop their nuclear program. We had stopped it through diplomacy. Do we really prefer war to diplomacy?” Kaine continued. “And President Trump – in the bombing of Iran in the summer – you’ll remember he said we had obliterated the Iranian nuclear program. Well, if that was true six months ago, there is no need for us to invade Iran now to stop their nuclear ambitions.”
Kaine continued, “The President has said we may need to go to war against Iran to protect the protesters. There are protesters against dictatorial governments all over the world. Are we going to put our sons and daughters into harm’s way against those nations to protect protesters?”
“Iran is a bad guy. Iran punishes protesters. Iran is engaged in all kinds of activity in the region – funding terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen,” Kaine said. “[Is Iran] worth wasting U.S. lives, U.S. money, and U.S. credibility over?”
“My time as Governor from 2006 to 2010 coincided with the mass deployment of Virginians into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as the Governor of Virginia, I had an authority over members of the Virginia National Guard,” Kaine said.
“One of the most emotional was a day that I went to the Virginia War Memorial to watch a homecoming. U.S. troops coming out of Afghanistan had landed at a base in New Jersey, and they had hopped on a bus to come back to Virginia to reunite with their families,” Kaine continued. “They exited the bus. They got in formation, and their commander announced that this National Guard unit was now returned – all present and accounted for.”
“I saw in his face that for that entire six-month deployment, he labored under the incredible strain of wanting to be able to say those words at the end of the deployment – ‘all present and accounted for,’” Kaine continued. “It made me think of the other homecomings I had been to where the commander couldn’t say those words, and it made me think about them and what they had labored under.”
“I made a vow when I came to this body that I would do everything in my power to fight tooth and nail against sending our sons and daughters into unnecessary wars,” said Kaine. “I’m on the Armed Services Committee. I’ve voted for war authorizations. If we need to go to war to defend this country, then those who’ve signed up to do that – knowing that that might be a possibility – they’re ready to serve to defend the nation. But an optional war at the whim of a President, ordering troops here and there around the globe as if they are a palace guard, for no articulate rationale puts our kids at risk in a completely unacceptable way.”
“We will have a vote next week on something that I believe is just bedrock constitutional law: we shouldn’t be at war without a vote of Congress,” said Kaine. “We shouldn’t be at war with Iran unless members of this body have the guts to have a debate and vote and put their thumbprint on it and say this is in the national interest. No shortcuts. No end runs around Congress. No end runs around debate in front of the American people and laying out the stakes for them.”
“Haven’t we learned something from a quarter of century of war in the Middle East? I hope we have. I hope my colleagues will join me next week in suggesting no war unless we vote to authorize it,” Kaine concluded.
Kaine has been a leading voice against unauthorized wars during his time in the Senate. Last June, the Senate voted on a similar War Powers Resolution introduced by Kaine to prevent the use of military force against Iran unless explicitly authorized by Congress. The June resolution gained bipartisan support but did not receive enough votes to advance. In January, Kaine forced a vote on his bipartisan War Powers Resolution on Venezuela, which gained enough Republican support to advance but was then sidestepped by Republican leadership to avoid losing further votes.
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