After President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to take out Iran’s secretive Quds Force commander, Qassem Suleimani, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the president should have asked for permission from Congress before conducting the airstrike.
“The Administration has conducted tonight’s strikes in Iraq targeting high-level Iranian military officials and killing Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani without an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iran. Further, this action was taken without the consultation of the Congress,” she said Thursday night in a statement.
She also said “The full Congress must be immediately briefed on this serious situation and on the next steps under consideration by the Administration, including the significant escalation of the deployment of additional troops to the region.”
But Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, launched more than 2,800 on Iraq and Syria without congressional approval.
“The U.S. military has been conducting strikes in Iraq for 10 months, and began striking directly at targets in Syria last September as part of Mr. Obama’s announced campaign to degrade the capabilities of the Islamic State,” The Washington Times reported in April 2015. – READ MORE