If President Donald Trump "foolishly decides" to bypass Congress and send the United States to war with Iran to protect Saudi Arabia's oil production, Senate leaders will file a resolution immediately to stop him, Sen. Tim Kaine warned Tuesday.
"There is a provision under the War Powers Resolution that gives us the ability to file immediately a resolution to stop military action and we're guaranteed a vote on that on the floor," the Virginia Democrat, a member of the Foreign Relations and the Armed Services committees, told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "We will force a vote on the Senate floor in full view of the American public."
Kaine said Virginia is both veteran-and-military heavy, and its people do not believe another war in the Middle East makes any sense.
Meanwhile, there is "real confusion" at the White House concerning the action to be taken after weekend bombing devastated two major Saudi oil facilities, with Trump saying he doesn't want war, but still saying the nation is "locked and loaded," said Kaine.
"Under no circumstances, none, should the United States go to war to protect Saudi oil," said Kaine. "We have worked so hard to develop our own energy economy," Kaine, who ran as Hillary Clinton's running mate in the 2016 presidential race, said. "During the Obama administration, we became essentially energy independent for the first time in a long time. "To put our troops in another war in the Middle East, I say this as a father of a Marine, to put our troops in another war in the Middle East, to protect Saudi oil, would be absolutely ridiculous."
Saudi Arabia and Iran are essentially neighbors and must work out their own problems, the senator added.
He did acknowledge that the drones that hit the Saudi fields likely either came from Iran or from rebels in Yemen, but the notion that the action was unprovoked is "absolutely ridiculous."
"Through reimposing sanctions on the Iranian oil sector, we basically disabled them from selling energy," said Kaine. "Do you think they're just going to accept that?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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