Housing for the 21st Century Act
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, the military strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel are a reckless escalation of an illegal war. Americans do not want another endless war in pursuit of regime change. Americans want to fix the affordability crisis here at home. Americans want to fund healthcare, not endless warfare. Americans want to reclaim the tax breaks for billionaires and millionaires to spend it on healthcare and education and environmental protections in our country. This war is not helping America; it is hurting America. This war is built on lies about nuclear threats, and those lies are now costing American servicemembers' lives.
Senators got a classified briefing from the administration yesterday, and it confirmed what we already knew: This is an unnecessary and illegal war--of choice--by Donald Trump. Iran posed no immediate threat, and there is no plan to end this catastrophe.
President Trump said yesterday that he started this war because ``he had a feeling''--Donald Trump ``had a feeling,'' he said, that Iran was going to attack. There is no evidence--zero--to back this up. He has presented no evidence to back up his feeling, and that is outrageous. We should never ever start a war based on a feeling but only on facts. Donald Trump is risking the world on his whims and on his feelings.
There was a time for diplomacy and for Trump to seek congressional approval. Instead, this war will be a wrecking ball through the Middle East and must be stopped.
Any war should have the support of Congress and the American people. Trump's war has neither. This attack has not been approved by Congress and holds dangers for all Americans.
If Trump does not stop this war now, Congress must. I look forward to voting later today to support the bipartisan War Powers Resolution to stop this illegal war.
Let me be clear: This is a crisis of Trump's own creation. Iran's nuclear program was under control, thanks to the 2015 nuclear deal which severely limited Iran's enrichment program and was working to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear bomb. But Trump tore up that deal in 2018 and then bombed Iran last June. Trump claimed then that the attack obliterated Iran's nuclear program. If it did, why is he attacking now? Was he lying then or is he lying now? He was lying at some point in this process. Either it was obliterated or it wasn't.
A diplomatic solution remains the best way to permanently and verifiably prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The more Trump bombs Iran, the further we get away from diplomatic deals. We are going backwards.
Now, with the death of the Ayatollah--a terrible, repressive leader who no one will miss--there is a power vacuum in the country and more chaos. There is no guarantee that there will be a change of regime at all or that whoever replaces the Ayatollah will be any better. In fact, the replacement could be much worse than the Ayatollah.
Trump clearly sought regime change in Iran, but it is unlikely we will see it without sending ground troops, which we should not do. History teaches us that air wars alone do not force regime change. In Venezuela, we removed the leader but did not change the regime.
The future of Iran should belong to the Iranian people. I stand with them. Before the attacks, they showed extraordinary courage by peacefully taking to the streets to demand change.
As much as we all want to help and support the Iranian people, this is not a moment to impose solutions or shape outcomes from the outside, but that is what Trump is trying to do.
I left yesterday's classified briefing understanding that Trump had absolutely no plan for this war or its endgame. It is not clear at all as to whether or not their goal is to engage in regime change or not. It is not clear at all when they plan to end this war and what their goals are that will end the war. And it is very clear that they have no idea what the successor government will look like in Iran.
They are making this up as they go along in Trump's Oval Office. I know that because they clearly had no evacuation plan for the scared Americans who are now struggling to leave the region, many without answers still as to how they get out of the region. My office is doing everything we can to help Massachusetts residents who are abroad in the Middle East trying to get home. We are hearing that the State Department has no plan to help them. This is a dangerous and reckless approach to war, and these families do not deserve to be in the crosshairs.
I am pressuring the State Department to act quickly and decisively to help bring these families home safely. It is day 5, and it is unacceptable that they still do not have a clear plan in the Trump administration as to how to evacuate all of these Americans who are caught in this Middle Eastern conflict. There was no plan.
The best way to protect people in the region is to end this war and end it right now. President Trump is completely out of control, and Americans have already lost their lives because of it. We need to end this illegal and unnecessary war now, and I will do everything in my power to make that happen.
No war with Iran.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source