On Wednesday, President Trump said he hadn鈥檛 decided yet if the U.S. will strike Iran鈥檚 nuclear facilities. But of Virginia said a war with Iran would be disastrous.
Kaine introduced a resolution that would require Trump to seek congressional approval before U.S. troops could engage in military conflict with Iran.
鈥淎 third war in the Middle East in this century would be a horrible, horrible mistake,鈥� Kaine said, 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 going to put U.S. service members at risk and also risk destabilizing the region.鈥�
5 questions with Sen. Tim Kaine
What are you hearing about potential U.S. involvement with Iran?
鈥淭here are sources both in Israel and in the White House and in Congress really urging the president to join in a full-scale war against Iran. But there鈥檚 also sources in the White House and here in Congress that are saying to the president, 鈥楶lease do not do this.鈥�
鈥淪o there鈥檚 competing thoughts within the White House about this, and so that鈥檚 why I introduced the resolution to force Congress to do what the Constitution requires, which is debate whether the U.S. being in war against Iran is a good idea or not.鈥�
Is it possible for your resolution to be passed by a Republican-controlled Senate?
鈥淚t鈥檚 possible. You鈥檙e right that the Senate Republican majority tends to be very loyal to President Trump, but I remind them of what President Trump has said over and over and over again: 鈥榃e shouldn鈥檛 be in another war in the Middle East. The forever wars are over.鈥� He has a long history that I鈥檓 reminding my colleagues of, saying these kinds of military misadventures are a very, very bad idea.鈥�
Would Trump defer to Congress on this decision?
鈥淐ongress doesn鈥檛 matter to him much, but I saw this in the first Trump term. He initiated a strike that killed the Iranian guard leader [Qasem] Soleimani, and I filed a motion then saying the U.S. shouldn鈥檛 be at war with Iran without a vote of Congress, and we got sufficient votes in both houses, including Republican votes. It went to his desk.
鈥淧resident Trump vetoed the bill, and we couldn鈥檛 override the veto, but guess what? He saw what the bill meant, and he backed off. And so yes, this does matter, even if we can鈥檛 get there ultimately or say we get there and he vetoes it, he will see the level of Democrats and Republicans in Congress telling him this is a very bad idea and that will be a factor that he will contemplate as he tries to make the decision.鈥�
鈥奃o you have what you believe is an accurate handle on the nuclear capabilities of Iran right now?
鈥淵es, and once the U.S. blew up the nuclear deal, Iran has continued to enrich uranium and increase centrifuges, but there is no indication that Iran has made a decision to turn that into a nuclear weapon.鈥�
American forces are already in the region. How exposed are they and what kind of danger do they face?
鈥淎ll I can say is based upon what鈥檚 happened already, the militias, for example, have been firing drones into U.S. military positions often over the course of the last 5 or 6 years. U.S. positions are pretty well known in the region. And they end up facing a lot of potential threats.
鈥淎nd again, Iran has said there hadn鈥檛 been a really active pace of attacks against U.S. positions in recent months, but they鈥檝e said, 鈥業f you enter the war on behalf of Israel, then you鈥檙e going to see this threat level increase,鈥� and I think you have to take that threat seriously.鈥�
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