More Bark Than Bite: Kaine’s War Powers Resolution Is An ‘Imminent’ Failure

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

We now have a glimpse of the War Powers Resolution promised by Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), which is reportedly scheduled for a vote in the Senate today or Wednesday. The resolution purportedly ends all combat operations against Iran … until you reach the very end where there is a hole that you could drive a combat task force through.

I respect members asserting their inherent constitutional authority. I have long criticized the lack of declarations of war as demanded by the Framers. We have not had a formal declaration of war since World War II. However, courts and Congress have long deferred to presidents in the conduct of such operations.

I represented congressional members challenging the Libyan war operation launched by President Barack Obama. Most Democratic members were entirely silent when Obama (and President Joe Biden) exercised such authority against different countries. Notably, the Libyan operation clearly sought regime change without an imminent threat to the United States. Some of those members are now the loudest condemning President Donald Trump in this operation.

This resolution shows how presidents can easily box in Congress once combat operations begin.

The resolution boldly declares “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government or military.”

However, at the very end, the resolution has this line: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the United States from defending itself from imminent attack.”

As I wrote this week, the problem with such resolutions is that they are effectively meaningless in the context of full combat operations against a nation: “Kaine and others insist that hostilities were not imminent when we attacked. Even if that were true, they are now.”

In these circumstances, it would be nearly impossible to limit the war powers of the President without putting American personnel or allies at risk.  After decapitating the leadership in Iran, Iranian assets are clearly operating under prior orders in a decentralized structure. The United States is now seeking to neutralize any assets that it can find in preemptive attacks while trying further to degrade the command structure and military capacity of the Iranian government.

As I wrote earlier:

“The choice now for Democrats is either a senseless or suicidal resolution. It can either resolve to end hostilities as soon as practically possible (an objective already stated by the Administration) or it can actually seek to limit the Administration’s options amid full-fledged war.”

This is the senseless option. All threats from Iran are now “imminent,” and all attacks are arguably preemptive. So what does this actually do?

Here is the resolution: Iran War Powers Resolution