1. United States
2. Va.
3. Letter

Congress cannot treat open contempt for the laws of war as normal. Not in our name, and not with our tax dollars. President Trump has now publicly threatened to destroy Iranian civilian infrastructure, including electric generating plants and other essential facilities, if Iran does not meet U.S. demands. Legal experts and the International Committee of the Red Cross have warned that deliberate threats or attacks against civilian infrastructure can violate the laws of war. Defense Secretary Hegseth’s rhetoric has also raised serious alarm. His “no quarter, no mercy” language has drawn warnings from legal experts, and multiple incidents under his watch, including the strike on a girls’ school in Iran and the deadly follow-on strike on a vessel in the Caribbean, deserve full public accounting. In both cases, there are credible reports raising profound legal and moral concerns, and Congress should not look away while facts are still being established. If civilian infrastructure is being threatened as leverage, if unlawful rhetoric is being normalized, and if military operations raising serious law-of-war questions are being brushed aside, Congress has an obligation to act. Please do not normalize this. Hold hearings. Demand full disclosure of the legal justifications, targeting decisions, and chain of command behind these incidents. Require public testimony from the administration and independent review where possible. And if the evidence supports it, pursue the constitutional remedies available to Congress. Democratic members of Congress should be clear that the United States cannot defend the international order while eroding the laws that are supposed to restrain war itself.