WASHINGTON, DC – As the Trump Administration continues to weigh military action against Iran, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), the Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says going to war with Iran could be a strategic misstep and is urging the Trump Administration to level with the American people about the true risks and costs of U.S. military action.

Reed notes the U.S. military could devastate Iran’s armed forces, but the president has failed to make a case to Congress or the American people about what would follow. Ahead of an expected Iran war powers resolution vote in Congress next week, Senator Reed stated:

“If war is unnecessary, it should be avoided. President Trump’s saber-rattling for war with Iran is taking the country down a dangerous path without a clear strategy or endgame and putting U.S. national security at considerable risk.

“The president barely mentioned Iran during the longest State of the Union speech in history. He failed to define the objective. Congress has received no real briefings or intelligence, and it is hard to justify action without rationale.

“The Iranian regime’s violence, support for terrorist proxies and other malign actors across the region, and its expanding ballistic missile arsenal are unacceptable. These are serious, destabilizing threats that demand resolute responses from the U.S. and our allies. But President Trump’s decision to abandon the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, weakness in securing an alternative, and his self-inflicted isolation from key U.S. allies has made this situation worse. He dismantled a functioning constraint and now implies that military force alone can substitute for strategy.

“Today, with two carrier strike groups and significant air and naval assets deployed in the region at levels unseen since the run-up to the Iraq War, the administration has not presented Congress or the American people with any coherent legal or strategic justification for preemptive strikes. The president is the Commander-In-Chief, but Congress alone holds the constitutional authority to authorize war. That responsibility cannot be bypassed; it must be exercised through transparency, consultation, and a vote.”