Wednesday’s vote in the House of Representatives directing President Trump to end military operations against Iran is a political fraud engineered by the Democratic Party, with the support of a handful of Republicans. It is unlikely to pass the Senate and would be vetoed by Trump if it did. He vetoed two such resolutions in his first term, in relation to US military operations in Yemen and Iran, and Congress did not override either veto.

The actual import of the resolution adopted by a 215-208 vote is to require Trump to get authorization for the war from Congress—meaning that there would be a further vote, and many if not most of those who voted “against” the Iran war on Wednesday would likely vote to authorize the war if given the chance.

In other words, the resolution is not an “antiwar” measure at all, but rather an appeal to Trump to make Congress a full partner in the war-making process, as required by the Constitution and further spelled out in the War Powers Act.

Leading Democrats and their media apologists sought to distort the significance of the vote. Representative Ro Khanna (D-California), former co-chair of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign in 2020 and a possible candidate for the 2028 Democratic nomination, claimed, “It’s the beginning of the end of the war.” He added, “The House of Representatives said the American people are tired of it.”

Representative Gregory Meeks (D-New York), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the author of the resolution said in a statement, “The passage of my War Powers Resolution is a significant bipartisan rebuke of President Trump’s illegal and costly war in Iran, and the first step toward ending it once and for all.”

The resolution is nothing of the sort. Its purpose is to allow the Democrats to posture as opponents of the war in the course of the midterm election campaign, while they reliably vote to fund the war and enable Trump and his fanatical Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to order bombing and mass murder as they please.

Meeks continued, “The passage of this WPR today signals a significant turning point: more and more Republicans are listening to their constituents who do not want another open-ended war in the Middle East.”

There is no doubt that the majority of Americans are not merely tired of the war, but oppose it vehemently, not only for its economic impact in terms of gas prices and overall inflation, but as a continuation of the endless wars in the Middle East that every American president since George W. Bush, Democrat and Republican, has promised to end—promises that were never kept.

The New York Times gushed in its news coverage of the House action: “Adoption of the resolution was a remarkable rebuke to Mr. Trump and his handling of the conflict, after he has repeatedly dismissed any effort by Congress to curb his power and as the G.O.P. has largely ceded its prerogatives to do so, deferring to him time and again.”

It must be repeated: the resolution does nothing to stop the war or impede Trump. The Democrats are not seeking to end the war, only to gain a “seat at the table” so that they will have input into how the war is to be waged.

The four Republicans who voted for the resolution made it clear that they wanted Congress to be consulted on the war, not to end it. Representative Warren Davidson (D-Ohio), a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, posted a statement reading: “Define the mission. Authorize the mission. Accomplish the mission.” He was joined by another far-right Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who was defeated last week by a Trump-backed candidate in the Republican primary. Massie has opposed Trump on both the war in Iran and the release of the Epstein files.

The other two Republicans are “moderates” facing difficult reelection bids in swing districts: Tom Barrett of Michigan, and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. Both have military-intelligence backgrounds, Barrett as an Army helicopter pilot for two decades with deployments in the Middle East, and Fitzpatrick as a career FBI agent.

Both took the position that under the War Powers Act, the president has a free hand to order military operations for up to 60 days, but after that must obtain authorization from Congress. “I don’t see what’s complicated about it,” Fitzpatrick said. “Bring it to Congress, debate it on the merits, and have us vote. That’s the way the system’s supposed to work.”

Soon after the passage of the Iran war resolution, Democrats won another victory in the Republican-controlled House, pushing through a procedural motion by a 218-204 margin, forcing the House to take up for consideration a bill to provide $9 billion more in aid and loans to the Ukraine government for the US-NATO war against Russia. Again, a unanimous Democratic caucus was joined by a handful of Republicans—six, in this case—to override the opposition of the House Republican leadership. Those voting to advance the Ukraine war funding included the entire “Squad” led by representatives affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Greg Casar and Ilhan Omar.

The Democrats thus demonstrated they are not “antiwar,” but only have different military priorities than Trump, wanting to focus far more on the Ukraine war and regarding Iran as something of a diversion.

The real attitude of the congressional Democrats to US military intervention in the Middle East was demonstrated Thursday, when the House overwhelmingly defeated a resolution, introduced by Representative Tlaib (D-Michigan), for the withdrawal of US troops from Lebanon. 

A majority of Democrats joined a near-unanimous Republican caucus in the 329-92 vote to reject invoking the War Powers Act in relation to Lebanon. Those voting against any limitation on US military operations in Lebanon included the entire House Democratic leadership: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar.

The debate on this resolution took on a particularly vicious character, as one Republican congressman, Max Miller of Ohio, accused Tlaib of “advocating for terrorists on a daily basis,” claiming her resolution amounted to support for Hezbollah, the Shi’ite political group that is one of the most powerful in the Lebanese parliament and dominates the southern half of the country..

Tlaib argued that “no specific statutory authorization for the use of United States Armed Forces with respect to the military action by Israel in Lebanon has been enacted.” Despite this, she said, the Trump administration is “illegally” backing the Israeli war with intelligence and other military aid, while Israel carries out “an ethnic cleansing campaign,” modeled on its actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

In its final action Thursday, the House approved the Ukraine aid package on which the Democrats had forced a vote. This time 18 Republicans broke with the White House and House Speaker Mike Johnson and sided with the Democrats. Every “left” Democrat voted for Ukraine war aid—Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Casar, Summer Lee—with the exception of Ilhan Omar.