Opinion - War with Iran appears imminent so what Congress going to do about it ?

yahoo.com · Feb 20, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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A Trump administration official has now indicated there is a 90 percent chance the U.S. will enter a major war with Iran within weeks, if not days, following the deployment of a second aircraft carrier group to the Middle East and a buildup of fighter jets and refueling aircraft in the region. Yet despite increasing indications that an open-ended war is on the immediate horizon, Congress has not held a single vote on the topic or even held a debate. The public does not want war with Iran. Poll after poll show strong majorities opposed to a new war of choice against a nation nearly four times the size of Iraq.Recent polling by Quinnipiac reveals that 70 percent of Americans oppose military action on Iran, with just 18 percent of Americans in support. It further found that 70 percent of Americans think the president should first seek approval from Congress before taking any military action. Likewise, a new University of Maryland poll finds just one in five Americans support a strike, with nearly three-quarters of Democrats and most independents opposed, and 60 percent of Republicans opposed or unsure if they would support an attack on Iran. War with Iran would not be a cakewalk. Iranian officials are making clear that Americans would be a target for retaliation — unlike in June, when Israel initiated and received the focus of Iran’s response. Rather, Iranian officials are emphasizing that American naval vessels would be targeted in a war, in addition to American bases in the region and the vital oil chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz.Given Iran’s missile capabilities, these are not idle threats that can be easily dismissed. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), arguably the most prominent lawmaker advocating for the U.S. military to pursue regime change in Iran, acknowledges that Iran has capabilities and could kill American soldiers. Although Graham believes that sacrifice would be worth it, it is far from clear what goal the U.S. would seek to achieve in such a war, and what costs may be associated with pursuing it.These seem like minimal questions to answer before entering a conflict, and yet there has been no oversight or debate from Congress.Reflecting this, 25 organizations, led by Center for International Policy, J Street, Just Foreign Policy and the National Iranian American Council Action, last week urged support for War Powers Resolutions on Iran that have been introduced in both the House of Representatives and Senate. Recognizing and condemning the massacre inflicted upon thousands of Iranians by the Islamic Republic’s repressive apparatus, the signers warn that U.S. military intervention would not help ordinary Iranians demanding change but would instead “pose a much graver risk of causing instability inside Iran that leads to more suffering while potentially triggering a regional conflict.”Unlike the lead-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been no congressional authorization for the use of force on Iran. Thankfully, Rep. Ro Khanna has indicated that he will force a vote next week on the War Powers Resolution on Iran that he introduced with Rep. Thomas Massie, which would block the president from introducing U.S. armed forces into hostilities against Iran. Congress can’t afford to leave a decision with profound implications for the American people to be decided by the whims of a single individual. While the current Congress has largely abdicated its role as a coequal branch in the second Trump term, silently assenting to war with Iran may become its biggest failure. Perhaps some think this is all a bluff to extract new concessions from Iran. Two formal rounds of negotiations have taken place under the looming threat of war, with Iran’s foreign minister projecting progress and the Trump administration expressing doubts about Iran’s willingness to meet their demands. It is possible that a breakthrough occurs, but the history of U.S.-Iran negotiations shows that breakthrough is rare, and that Iran has been hostile to the prospect of negotiating under threat.President Trump himself has indicated that there will be war if there is not a deal — and, as happened last June, he may be open to declaring them to be a dead end by initiating an attack in the middle of talks. Even if Trump abstains from a strike, positioning two carrier strike groups in close proximity to Iran dramatically increases the risk of miscalculation and unintended conflict at a sensitive moment. A single incident can spiral into a broader confrontation that either side may have initially intended. This has been evident by Iran’s moves to hold military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, and a carrier group shooting down an Iranian drone earlier this month that came too close to the American military position.There should be serious oversight over the administration’s approach toward Iran.In his first term, Trump reneged on a nuclear deal that was working amid vows he would get a “better” deal. With seemingly no plan to actually do so, Iran’s nuclear program raced forward, and reimposed U.S. sanctions helped impoverish Iranians already facing repression from their own government.In his second term, after accepting Benjamin Netanyahu’s terms that doomed his ability to realistically secure a new nuclear deal, Trump joined Netanyahu in bombing Iran and then declared the nuclear program was “obliterated.” Now, just eight months later, he is preparing to bomb Iran again if Iran doesn’t accept his ultimatums on the severely damaged program.With his deal-making in doubt, there is a serious risk Trump will enter the U.S. into a new and disastrous war of choice, with hardly a peep from Congress.How many members of Congress share the view that American servicemembers should be sacrificed in an open-ended war to “Make Iran Great Again”? At the very least, lawmakers owe it to them — and all of those innocents who could be killed in war — to call up the Iran war powers resolutions for a vote and debate the weighty issues that are being considered in the White House.The clock is ticking.Ryan Costello is policy director with the National Iranian American Council.Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.