Gabbard and Paul. (Getty Images)
By Cathy Burke
NEWSMAX
President Donald Trump on Friday drew criticism from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill for approving the airstrike that killed Iran’s top general.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in a series of tweets, warned against waging a war with Iran without congressional approval. Without that approval, he said, there was a risk of “feckless intermittent eruptions of violence.”
“If we are to go to war w/ Iran the Constitution dictates that we declare war,” he wrote. “A war without a Congressional declaration is a recipe for feckless intermittent eruptions of violence w/ no clear mission for our soldiers. Our young men and women in the armed services deserve better.”
He also suggested that the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who had been accused of aiding Shiite forces who killed thousands of American troops in Iraq, would only widen the conflict.
“The question today is whether the assassination of Soleimani will expand the war to endanger the lives of every American soldier or diplomat in the Middle East,” he wrote.
Rep. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, who is running for president, declared to supporters on Friday that the attack authorized by Trump constituted “an act of war,” The Hill reported.
The airstrike is “pushing us deeper into an endless quagmire and dangerously undermining our national security,” she said in the email blast.
“Make no mistake: Trump’s actions are an act of war,” wrote Gabbard, herself an Iraq War veteran, The Hill reported. Raising concerns similar to those voiced by Paul, she denounced the airstrike as “taken without any authorization or declaration of war from Congress.”
Gabbard has linked her White House bid to ending America’s military involvements abroad and withdrawing troops from the Middle East.
“We need to get out of Iraq and Syria now. That is the only way that we’re going to prevent ourselves from being dragged into this quagmire, deeper and deeper into a war with Iran,” Gabbard tweeted Friday.
For the most part, congressional Republicans have praised Trump in the wake of the strike.
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hailed the “decisive action and the successful outcome,” as did Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Graham said Friday that Trump informed him about the “potential” operation that ended with Soleimani’s death when he was in Florida at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort during the holiday break.
“I appreciate being brought into the orbit,” the South Carolina Republican, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “I really appreciate President Trump letting the world know you cannot kill an American without impunity. We will stand up for our people and that is an absolutely essential message.”
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https://www.newsmax.com/draft-stories/trump-gabbard-paul-soleimani/2020/01/03/id/948352/