1. United States
2. Maine
3. Letter

Republicans Enabled This Costly War.  End It. The Iran war is now seven months old, and it is getting worse, not better, because Congress keeps letting it.   This week alone: Houthi forces closed in on another shipping chokepoint, and oil jumped again, with Brent crude spiking over 3% in a single session. Diesel hit a new all-time record of $6.31 a gallon, up 37 cents in a single week. Gasoline is at $4.37 nationally and rising across the country. The 10-year Treasury yield spiked to its highest level since 2007. Moody's puts the added cost to the average household at $1,760 since this war started, and that number is now stale. These are the direct costs to the American people bacause of a war Congress has failed to stop it.   At the same time, CBS News published leaked photos this week showing serious damage to U.S. bases in the Middle East. Active service members leaked them because, in their words, the damage "hasn't been communicated to the American public." The Pentagon's own inspector general reports "strategic inventory shortfalls" and hundreds of destroyed buildings and structures in just the first four months. Our military's equipment and stockpiles are being ground down in a war with no authorization and no exit strategy.   Trump started this war. He and Secretary Hegseth have had seven months to end it and have proven, repeatedly, that they cannot manage it or bring it to a close. That failure is theirs. But it is Congress's constitutional job to stop a president from waging unauthorized war, and Congress has had that power the entire time.   The House has now passed a war powers resolution three times. The first time, in June, the Senate passed it too, 50-48. Trump ignored it, the White House dismissed it as having "no significance," and the war went on exactly as before. More war powers resolutions are just performative.   Every recalcitrant Republican member of Congress who opposed the chance to build a veto-proof majority to cut off funding for this war, or to hold this president accountable for defying a Congressional resolution, owns a share of what this war is costing: Dead and wounded troops, destroyed equipment, and the additional dollars American families pay at the pump and on their mortgages. Will you commit to a veto-proof funding cutoff for combat operations in and around Iran? And when the President ignores a resolution Congress has passed, will you support holding him accountable for it through litigation and/or impeachment?