Was the Iran war worth it? Asks US Congress
The question hangs in the halls at the Capitol: Was it worth it? Congress, which never authorized the war against Iran yet never fully objected
The question hangs in the halls at the Capitol: Was it worth it? Congress, which never authorized the war against Iran yet never fully objected to it, now must grapple with the consequences of President Donald Trump's nearly four-month conflict: the lives lost, the billions spent and the national security fallout that has reordered the political dynamics in the Middle East.Also read: US-Iran war: There are many questions about the peace deal. Here are (some) answers Ask senators what they think about the deal Trump struck to end the war, and they do not search too far for words. "Pathetic. Failure. Inevitable conclusion of a combination of never making the case to the American people, flawed strategic vision, lack of grasp of the regional dynamics," said Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "How many ways, can I say, bad, bad, bad?" Yet Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a past chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that because of the president's actions, "We are safer today." "You can criticize - Oh, he didn't totally win," Johnson said. "Well, that was always going to be very difficult." As Trump moves on to the next phase, it is left to the Congress to pick up the pieces: explaining the war to voters back home, restocking the military arsenal that has run low from bombing runs and trying to ensure the fragile ceasefire holds as the United States seeks to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions and work toward an uneasy peace.
More money for the Pentagon Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the rounds on Capitol Hill this past week as lawmakers consider Defense Department funding as part of the Republican majority's next big budget package. The White House has asked for a remarkable $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon this year, on top of the extra money that Republicans delivered as part of the Trump's tax cuts package last year. Republicans are mulling a sizable $350 billion plus-up for Hegseth on par with the White House's budget request that the GOP could pass on its own, through the reconciliation process that allows majority rule over potential objections from Democrats. Senators, meanwhile, are seeking to set some guardrails on Hegseth with a provision to block a portion of his travel fund until the Pentagon delivers various reports. One such report is on an investigation into the strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed more than 165 people, a flashpoint at the start of the war. Officials have said they believe the U.S. was responsible for the strike and that it was based on faulty intelligence. Questions swirl over what's next in Iran Lawmakers are still processing what just happened after Trump swiftly signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran and opened a window of 60-day talks toward ending Tehran's nuclear program. "I understand the president's trying to find a peaceful solution to this," said Sen.
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