At a Greater Haverhill Indivisible party last night I urged specific actions about Iran when opportunities arise vs unfocused rage or fear which could serve other agendas without making progress. Hours later, here’s our chance: 3 things to do.
1) Tomorrow, call (better) or email our Senators, tell them to vote for Senator Kaine’s bill to block further escalation of hostilities with Iran without approval by Congress* (some details in comment). It’s a privileged bill McConnell can’t block coming to the floor—it’s the priority.
2) Call your House Rep, tell them to publicly support Kaine’s bill now and vote for it when it comes to the House. If Seth Moulton or Lori Trahan is your rep, continue to 3)
3) If Lori Trahan or Seth Moulton is your rep, thank them for their statements on the Soleimani attack, ask them as members of the House Armed Services Committee to hold hearings to get answers from senior military leaders on a) what the military was told about justification and intent for the attack, b) how the attack has increased risk to our armed forces, and c) to confirm our armed forces will not follow unlawful orders to commit war crimes and deliberately target civilians and cultural sites under any circumstances in Iran or elsewhere, notwithstanding the President’s recent tweets and previous comments about the family members of US adversaries. Ask them to explain to America and the world why they won’t do that.
Do those 3 things. Don’t try to drop everything to become an Iran or law of armed conflict expert or endlessly debate the (likely flawed) merits of the Soleimani attack with supporters of the attack online or off. Don’t give in to people (with or without agendas) telling you that war or WWIII is imminent or inevitable. Don’t exhaust yourself on this alone.
Do these 3 things about this for now. Then keep going on all the issues you care about from climate change globally to affordable housing at the local level, support your preferred Presidential candidate in the primary, and knock on doors / register people to vote / bring friends with you to vote for another President this fall who will make America and the world more safe.
Article on Kaine bill: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/476702-kaine-introduces-resolution-to-block-war-with-iran
*further comment about Kaine’s bill is that it does still allow the President to initiate hostilities in response to imminent attack– which is an overused and abused justification that Trump, Obama, Bush, and predecessors have used to twist the international law doctrine of “self defence” into “anticipatory self defence” when other efforts short of military attack could be used in many cases. Though much of the War Powers Act justification for the Soleimani attack has been classified, this was part of the justification Trump used for this attack. A single bill in Congress can’t fix that, and it would get bogged down endlessly. This bill helps but does not totally fix the problem related to Iran or our use of the military elsewhere. It is progress, and would almost certainly block, say, a major deployment of U.S. forces to the region for the specific purpose of war. A new Senate and a new President will be needed to pass the legislation to fix this in the long run.
Thank you for the focus. Nothing is more important. Do the three things.
Senator Warren Boston office : 617-565-3170
Senator Markey Boston office : 617-565-8519
Congressman Moulton District office : 978-531-1669
Congresswoman Lori Trahan District office : 978-459-0101
Will you run for Congress again? You seem far more knowledgeable about these issues than the incumbent or her potential challenger. Either way this is instructive advice.