Vancouver resident Jim McConnell says ‘what we see today is a weaker U. S. Congress, less willing to act than the founders intended’

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and may not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com

Was President Trump’s strike on Iran Constitutional? Did he act like a dictator, as no president has done before him, like the news media and some democrat politicians have claimed, and should he be impeached? 

A few facts from American History: 

• Congress has declared war only five times in our nation’s history. 
• Presidents have committed military forces into combat abroad over 130 times. 
• What has been called the Korean War and the Vietnam War, were police actions directed by presidents, not wars declared by Congress. Over 94,000 Americans died in those two conflicts. 
• The first time a president sent troops to fight without Congressional action was when George Washington conducted the Indian Wars. 
• Thomas Jefferson fought the Barbary pirates with his own authority. It was the first time America fought Muslim terrorists. Some consider this a historic parallel to what Trump did during June 2025, in Iran.  
• Abraham Lincoln raised an army and navy and launched them against the South without Congress. 
• After Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939, FDR ordered Navy escorts for British convoys, military aid to the allies, and attacks on German submarines. 
• Several democrat presidents, including Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, and Obama have ordered military attacks on our enemies, without Congressional approval. Obama dropped more than 26,000 bombs on seven Middle Eastern countries in 2016. Neither Congress, the courts, nor the American press called on these presidents to stop, or reported that what they did was illegal, nor did they call for impeachment. 

It is also important to note that Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Biden all said they would not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon but did nothing to prevent it. Trump also said he would not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon, but he took specific, targeted action to destroy Iran’s capabilities. It is also interesting that none of the former presidents have congratulated Trump’s action and leadership for doing what they said they would do. 

John Yoo, Constitutional scholar, law professor at UC Berkeley, former pentagon lawyer, said, “Trump’s strike on Iran was Constitutional. The President acted to protect the nation’s security within the powers granted to his office by the Constitution.” 

What we see today is a weaker U. S. Congress, less willing to act than the founders intended; and the news media, which is more duplicitous, calling one political party out while ignoring when the other party does the same thing.  

Jim McConnell
Vancouver

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