War is imminent. Present Trump authorized a military strike to kill Iranian military leader Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad, an act that has driven the Iranians to swear retaliation. 

The military action to kill Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was dangerous, illegal and possibly untruthful.

The United States must avoid war with Iran. Congress has the power to stop this. Get the facts here, and then call your members of Congress and tell them to use their legal authority to prohibit further unwarranted acts of war against Iran.

What to know:

1. War with Iran would be bloodier and costlier even than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

War with Iran would make the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – which have cost 800,000 lives and more than $6 trillion – “look like a walk in the park.”

That’s because, as written by William Hartung, U.S. administrations have a well-documented penchant for overconfidence about how quickly or easily the U.S. can win wars. (See: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, among others). Just as bad, the U.S. military seems to know how to win battles and take territory, but has absolutely no idea what to do after that, as evidenced by our two decades of war. 

Iran is bigger than Iraq, more strategically located, and has a bigger military. For all these reasons and more, war with Iran would likely be significantly bloodier and costlier than the war in Iraq.

2.  There is no legal authorization for this action.

According to the Constitution, Congress, not the President, has the authority to declare war. This president far overstepped these bounds. Congressional leaders were not even made aware of the strike before it occurred, let alone asked to authorize it. But 18 years of congressional negligence as three presidents were given a blank check for war has led us here. Enough is enough.

Just a few months ago, the House passed a bill that would have expressly forbidden military action in Iran without congressional approval. It is time for Congress to do its job. Congress must pass immediate legislation clarifying their sole legal authority to declare war.

3.  Congress must discover the truth.

Over the last 18 years, America has been led into war in Iraq on false pretenses, has been deliberately and systematically misled about prospects for success or ever ending the war in Afghanistan, and now we are being told that the attack on Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was justified because (presumably) intelligence suggested that attacks on Americans were imminent. 

We can no longer trust what we are being told. This is all the more reason why Congress must immediately assert its role in declaring war and conducting oversight of intelligence that has all too often led us into disastrous and ill-fated wars. 

We will not allow a new war to break out. Call your members of Congress and tell them to immediately pass legislation revoking the president’s blanket war authority and reclaiming war powers for Congress alone.

Call now.