Matthew Cunningham-Cook grew up in Brattleboro and lives in Costa Rica with his family. An award-winning investigative journalist and researcher, he is a writer and researcher for the Center for Media and Democracy. He has written for The Lever, The Intercept, The Nation, The American Prospect, Al Jazeera, and In These Times.
SAN JOSé, COSTA RICA-Today, the dogs of war are howling. Confronted by an Epstein scandal spiraling out of control, Trump is letting his pit bull Marco Rubio dictate foreign policy, most importantly against Iran.
Twenty-three years after the U.S. made the disastrous decision to invade Iraq, it has done the same again — this time, against a far larger, more powerful, and strategically-placed country. The results are guaranteed to be cataclysmic.
But where has Bernie been on this, exactly?
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Our Vermont senator has been doing admirable work campaigning for a wealth tax in California (it would be nice if he was a bit more outspoken about the need for a wealth tax in this state — John Abele should pay a lot more), but he has been nowhere to be found in recent weeks on the pressing matter of Trump’s dangerous escalation in Iran.
This, despite the fact that Sanders ran two transformative campaigns for the presidency that received enormous support around the country, in part because of his votes against the Iraq War and the PATRIOT Act, legislation supported by both Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.
This is not to discount Sanders’ laudable work on arms sales to Israel and the United Arab Emirates, but being the most prominent senator in the country comes with certain responsibilities: Only Congress has the power to declare war, per the Constitution.
By not vocally working to stop the flow of business in the Senate (withholding unanimous consent, putting holds on Trump nominees) Bernie has unfortunately chosen to adopt a go-along-to-get-along attitude over his constitutional responsibilities as a member of Congress.
This is not unique to Bernie — it’s a problem for U.S. Sen. Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint as well — but, again, Bernie is the most well-known member of the Senate, bar none.
It’s time for Bernie to be far more vocal. He mentioned Iran on Jan. 13, in response to the Trump threats then, and until Feb. 28, when he posted briefly on X (“This Trump–Netanyahu war is unconstitutional and violates international law,” he said) none of his public communications reference the topic. During that time, the U.S. amassed an armada greater than any since the 2003 buildup to the war with Iraq.
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Every member of Congress who is concerned about this administration must denounce this war with the force that the situation deserves. It is an emergency.
Trump’s attack on Iran is nakedly unconstitutional, the legal opinions justifying it are hidden from public view, and it is a transparent attempt by Trump to distract from the Epstein scandal. Iran poses no threat to the U.S., which has the most powerful military in human history.
The U.S., on the other hand, has used vicious sanctions to starve Iranians, and then in June launched a decapitation attack on the country’s military, after earlier assassinating Iran’s top general in 2020.
Our country’s long dependence on militarism and war unfortunately pushed me and my family out of Vermont. Because Americans spend nearly $1 trillion annually on war and militarism, we have failed to invest in affordable housing and high-quality education.
On every level — from lost economic opportunities to human life — the consequences are disastrous for Americans and humanity as a whole.
In the first hours of the war on Feb. 28, three U.S. service members died and five others were seriously wounded. It is guaranteed that more Americans will die.
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War with Iran would be the perfect pretext for the Trump administration to deploy the Insurrection Act on national security grounds, putting the U.S. at risk for martial law. Trump has repeatedly stated that he would like to be a dictator. This now can come to pass with the president’s massive emergency wartime powers.
In 2002 and 2003, Bernie courageously opposed the Iraq War (even though he made an enormous mistake by being one of very few heterodox members of Congress to vote for the Iraq Liberation Act four years earlier).
Had more people listened, we would be a very different country today. But at the time, there was no politician who was vocally criticizing the war who had a major national platform. That is very different today.
Bernie has an enormous bully pulpit. He must call for nationwide nonviolent civil disobedience actions against this violent and dangerous administration’s war and mobilize mass rallies against militarism. The difference is life or death.
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