It's not a war even if Congress approves it. It's still just "an exercise of the War Powers Act", which is not technically the same thing.
To actually be a war Congress has to declare war. But they passed the War Powers Act so that they wouldn't have to do that.
In theory, the War Powers Act is limited to 60-90 days unless Congress approves funding. Which they may -- a bill to refuse funding failed. Which isn't the same thing, but even if they can't pass the authorization, it's not clear if that actually matters to anybody.
“Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia”
But on a more serious non-political note, what is the end game here? It's not hard to see a future with a barren and destroyed landscape of Middle Eastern energy infrastructure, where neither the Gulf states nor Iran can reliably produce and export their energy due to continual risk.
The US can never fully defang Iran, unless it happens internally. And from history, we know that aerial bombing campaigns typically don't reinforce the civilian will for revolution.
So now we have a pariah state with a decapitated leadership structure, an array of Gulf states who cannot reliably defend their energy assets, and no will for a global detente because of the thousands of entangled interests that sit in the Gulf region.
Either this festers, or escalates, but no party seems to be willing to step down and accept a loss.
To put this into perspective, the US provided Ukraine with $64.62bn of military aid and $50.72bn of humanitarian and financial support in the four years between January 2022 and December 2025.
Defense contractors, apocalypse prophecy crusaders, and Lindsey Graham love it though. It's $200B not going to housing, food, healthcare, elder care, scientific advancement, or infrastructure and it's limited munitions not going to Ukraine to help defeat Putin.
"Almost over" but needs 180 days of funding without Congressional authorization for the declaration of war.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 37.6 ms ] threadTo actually be a war Congress has to declare war. But they passed the War Powers Act so that they wouldn't have to do that.
In theory, the War Powers Act is limited to 60-90 days unless Congress approves funding. Which they may -- a bill to refuse funding failed. Which isn't the same thing, but even if they can't pass the authorization, it's not clear if that actually matters to anybody.
But on a more serious non-political note, what is the end game here? It's not hard to see a future with a barren and destroyed landscape of Middle Eastern energy infrastructure, where neither the Gulf states nor Iran can reliably produce and export their energy due to continual risk.
The US can never fully defang Iran, unless it happens internally. And from history, we know that aerial bombing campaigns typically don't reinforce the civilian will for revolution.
So now we have a pariah state with a decapitated leadership structure, an array of Gulf states who cannot reliably defend their energy assets, and no will for a global detente because of the thousands of entangled interests that sit in the Gulf region.
Either this festers, or escalates, but no party seems to be willing to step down and accept a loss.
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/17/trump-iran-war-cost/
total spent on war and military from 2002-2021 was $21 TRILLION
https://ips-dc.org/report-state-of-insecurity-cost-militariz...
Or maybe it has since there isn't yet an occupation.
Defense contractors, apocalypse prophecy crusaders, and Lindsey Graham love it though. It's $200B not going to housing, food, healthcare, elder care, scientific advancement, or infrastructure and it's limited munitions not going to Ukraine to help defeat Putin.
"Almost over" but needs 180 days of funding without Congressional authorization for the declaration of war.