WASHINGTON – Win Without War Executive Director Stephen Miles released the following statement regarding the U.S. military’s assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds force:
“Tonight, Donald Trump has driven us to the brink of war with Iran — and possibly further.
“Make no mistake: Donald Trump is responsible for this crisis. Trump entered office with some of the most promising inroads to peaceful relations with Iran in decades. Instead, he proceeded to fill his cabinet with warmongers, abandon the successful, multilateral Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and launch a systematic campaign of “maximum pressure,” placing the US and Iran on a collision course to conflict. Now, he has chosen to assassinate, without congressional authorization, one of Iran’s most powerful leaders.
“War with Iran would be disastrous and wholly unnecessary. Military and diplomatic leaders have warned it could bring costs, in both blood and treasure, greater than the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan combined. We now face a stark choice: continue down the current path, with its catastrophic consequences, or immediately de-escalate: walk back aggressive rhetoric, end the cycle of military retaliation, and engage meaningfully in a diplomatic process for peace.
“Only Congress has the power to decide whether U.S. forces should be put into harm’s way. In fact, bipartisan majorities in both chambers, backed by vast grassroots support, sought to block this type of offensive military action against Iran in the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Even this most basic level of congressional oversight was too much for the Trump administration, and much of the Republican party, which stripped the language in the bill’s final negotiations. Sadly, we’re now seeing the results of that dereliction of duty.
“Escalatory tit-for-tat military actions, incendiary rhetoric, military brinkmanship, and Donald Trump’s recklessness have brought us to the edge of a war with unthinkable human consequences. Now is the time for a massive, immediate diplomatic intervention, backed by overwhelming people-power to help prevent the worst.”