CONGRESS/IRAN/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WAR: “When the White House suddenly announced this past week that it was deploying a Navy carrier strike group and a bomber task force to send a message to Iran, it framed the decision as having a clear and urgent reason. The announcement, issued Sunday [5-5-19] night by national security adviser John Bolton, mentioned ‘troubling and escalatory indications and warnings’ about the Iranian regime. Over the next few days, a trickle of new information emerged in the media—but not much. A CNN report said U.S. officials had ‘specific and credible’ intelligence suggesting that Iran and proxy forces were targeting American forces in the region; U.S. officials told NBC that Iran, in fact, had permitted those proxy forces to go after U.S. assets. Axios also reported that Israel had supplied the United States with some intelligence about an anti-U.S. Iranian plot in the Persian Gulf. The Trump administration’s moves might be just saber-rattling, but they could easily propel the United States toward a military confrontation with Iran. And before that happens, Congress needs to move quickly to find out exactly what evidence is driving the Trump team’s decision-making, and just how reliable the intelligence is.”
-Steve Simon and Richard Sokolsky, “If the U.S. Is Going to War With Iran, Congress Needs the Evidence,” Politico, May 9, 2019