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Peace Campaigners Demand Congress Stop Trump From Waging ‘Devastating’ War on Iran
"Like the votes before the Iraq War, this could be one of the most consequential foreign policy decisions in a generation."
Feb 19, 2026
Anti-war groups are turning up the pressure on Congress to support a war powers resolution that would limit President Donald Trump's ability to wage war against Iran.
Amid reports that the US is rapidly mobilizing military hardware to the Middle East, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced on Wednesday that they'd attempt to force a House vote on a resolution that would prohibit Trump from striking Iran without congressional authorization.
According to a Thursday conversation between Drop Site News journalist Jeremy Scahill and Robert Malley, a former senior US Middle East envoy and lead negotiator of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Trump's intention to launch a US attack on Iran is nearly a forgone conclusion at this point.
"Part of the strategy being discussed within the administration," said Scahill, based on sources and conversations over recent months, is that Trump and his team are putting an "ultimatum on the table," but there's actually not a belief that a real negotiation over terms is taking place.
"It's not actually playing out in public this way," said Scahill, "but what I understand is that Trump's people are basically saying to the Iranians: 'We're not just going to deal with the nuclear [issues] here. This has to involve ballistic missile capacity. It has to involve your alliances with armed resistance groups [in places like Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Gaza.]'"
"The Iranians have said these are red lines and they're not going to accept this," he continued. "So it seems like what's happening is that Trump is issuing an ultimatum, they know there is almost zero chance the Iranians are going to take it, and then they're going to bomb them. That's really what I'm hearing from inside sources."
Iran's response to Trump's bombing of three nuclear sites in June was measured, but Iranian officials have signaled they are not going to hold back in the event of a broader US strike.
Fouad Isadi, an Iranian professor with knowledge of the government's inner workings, told Scahill last month that in the event of a large-scale strike by Trump, the military was planning a retaliatory strike aimed at killing at least 500 US soldiers.
"We could see the Iranians really hit hard in a way that blows the Americans away on a psychological level and that Trump hasn't had to deal with before," Scahill said on Thursday. "I assume that President Trump's response would be even more enraged and even more brutal than anything one could imagine."
With hope for a deal between Trump and Iran dimming, anti-war groups are saying that Congress may be the only thing standing in the way of a massive conflict.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) urged Americans to contact their members of Congress to oppose what they called an "Israel First War on Iran," noting the heavy involvement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in pressuring President Donald Trump to pursue an aggressive, uncompromising posture toward Iran.
“We call on all Americans to tell their members of Congress to oppose another US regime change war; we call on the media to ask the tough questions it failed to ask in the march to the Iraq invasion; and we call on the Trump administration to put American interests first—not the interests of Netanyahu’s rogue, warmongering government," CAIR wrote in a statement published Thursday.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker group, told its followers to bombard Congress with messages, warning that "strikes on Iran risk widespread civilian suffering inside Iran and could ignite a catastrophic regional war."
Alix Fraser, vice president of the anti-corruption group Issue One, said Trump's threats to carry out "unilateral military action" against Iran "is not an isolated incident but part of a broader troubling pattern."
"Without consulting Congress, the administration is practicing gunboat diplomacy and has gone so far with it as to bring about regime change in Venezuela," Fraser said. "Rep. Khanna’s and Rep. Massie’s bipartisan war powers Resolution is a good first step, but the problem of Congress ceding its war powers goes back decades."
Medea Benjamin, founder of the anti-war women's group CodePink, said that "regardless of how you feel about Iran’s government, another war in the Middle East would be devastating and avoidable," and put US troops "at grave risk of retaliation."
"We've seen this before in Iraq. We can't let history repeat itself," she said. "The people of Iran, whether they like their government or detest it, are terrified of a US attack."
"Congress must act now," she added. "Like the votes before the Iraq War, this could be one of the most consequential foreign policy decisions in a generation."
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'Vile and Un-American': Tuberville Blasted for Demanding Mass Expulsion of Muslims
Republican Senator from Alabama, said one critic, is "unfit for public office and should face censure and removal."
Dec 15, 2025
A Republican senator is getting blasted for a bigoted social media rant in which he declared that Islam is "not a religion" while advocating the mass expulsion of Muslims from the US.
In the wake of Sunday's horrific mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia, which left 16 people dead and was carried out by two men with suspected ties to the terrorist organization ISIS, Tuberville lashed out at Muslims and promoted their mass deportation.
"Islam is not a religion," Tuberville, currently a Republican candidate for Alabama governor, wrote on X. "It's a cult. Islamists aren't here to assimilate. They're here to conquer. Stop worrying about offending the pearl clutchers. We've got to SEND THEM HOME NOW or we'll become the United Caliphate of America."
Tuberville neglected to note that a Muslim man named Ahmed al Ahmed, a Syrian refugee who gained his Australian citizenship in 2022, tackled and disarmed one of the alleged shooters before they could fire more shots at the Jewish people who had gathered on Bondi Beach to celebrate Hanukkah.
Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that Tuberville's comments on Muslims were akin to those made by former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, an infamous segregationist who fought the US federal government's efforts to racially integrate state schools.
"Senator Tuberville appears to have looked at footage of George Wallace standing in a schoolhouse door to keep Black students out and decided that was a model worth reviving—this time against Muslims,” Saylor said. “His rhetoric belongs to the same shameful chapter of American history, and it will be taught that way.”
Tuberville was also condemned by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who hammered the Republican senator for using an attack on Jews in Australia to justify prejudice against Muslims in the US.
"An outrageous, disgusting display of islamophobia from Sen. Tuberville," wrote Schumer. "The answer to despicable antisemitism is not despicable islamophobia. This type of rhetoric is beneath a United States senator—or any good citizen for that matter."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), meanwhile, described Tuberville's rant as "vile and un-American," and said that his "bigoted zealotry" against Muslims would have made America's founders "cringe."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said Tuberville's rhetoric was completely at odds with the US Constitution.
"This is a senator calling for religious purges in the United States," he wrote. "A country whose earliest colonists came fleeing religious persecution and whose Founders thought that protecting against state interference with religion was so important it was put into the First Amendment."
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, noted that Tuberville was far from alone in expressing open bigotry toward Muslims, as US Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) and New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino had also made vicious anti-Muslim statements in recent days.
"A congressman says mainstream Muslims should be 'destroyed,'" he wrote. "A senator says Islam is not a religion and Muslims should be sent 'home.' A NYC councilwoman calls for the 'expulsion' and 'denaturalization' of Muslims. Fascist anti-Muslim bigotry is now explicit Republican policy."
Williams also said Tuberville was "unfit for public office and should face censure and removal."
Fred Wellman, a Democratic candidate for US congress in Missouri, countered Tuberville with just two sentences: "Islam is a religion. Tommy Tuberville is an unrepentant racist."
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'Stop Arming Israel,' Jewish-Led Groups Tell DNC Leaders at Party Summit
"The American public is demanding decisive action to end US complicity in the Israeli government’s war crimes by stopping the flow of weapons to Israel."
Dec 12, 2025
Jewish Voice for Peace Action on Friday led a coalition of groups demanding that the Democratic Party stop providing arms to the Israeli government.
Speaking outside the Democratic National Committee’s Winter Meeting in Los Angeles, Jewish Voice for Peace Action (JVP Action) held a press conference calling on Democrats to oppose all future weapons shipments to Israel, whose years-long assault on Gaza has, according to one estimate, killed more than 100,000 Palestinian people.
While carrying banners that read, "Stop Arming Israel," speakers at the press conference also called on Democrats to reject money from the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), which has consistently funded primary challenges against left-wing critics of Israel.
JVP Action was joined at the press conference by representatives from Health Care 4 US (HC4US), Progressive Democrats of America, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action (CAIR Action), as well as a retired teacher and former member of the United Teachers of Los Angeles Board of Directors.
Estee Chandler, founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, warned Democrats at the press conference that they risked falling out of touch with public opinion if they continued to support giving weapons to Israel.
"The polls are clear,” Chandler said. "The American public is demanding decisive action to end US complicity in the Israeli government’s war crimes by stopping the flow of weapons to Israel, and the Democratic Party refusing to heed that call will continue to come at their own peril."
The press conference came a day after the progressive advocacy group RootsAction and journalist Christopher D. Cook released an "autopsy" report of the Democratic Party's crushing 2024 losses, finding that the party's support for Israel's assault on Gaza contributed to last year's election results.
Chandler also called on Democrats to get behind the Block the Bombs Act, which currently has 58 sponsors, and which she said "would block the transfer of the worst offensive weapons from being sent to Israel, including bombs, tank rounds, and artillery shells that are US-supplied and have been involved in the mass killing of Palestinian civilians and the grossest violations of international law in Gaza."
Although there has technically been a ceasefire in place in Gaza since October, Israeli forces have continued to conduct deadly military operations in the enclave that have killed hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children.
Ricardo Pires, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund, said last month that the number of deaths in Gaza in recent weeks has been "staggering" given that they've happened "during an agreed ceasefire."
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