1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

I am writing as your constituent, and I am asking you to pay attention to something that happened on Monday, April 20, 2026, in the Cannon House Office Building, just steps from your office. Approximately 120 United States military veterans, organized by About Face: Veterans Against the War, gathered peacefully in the Cannon rotunda to protest America’s ongoing war in Iran. They held symbolic burial flags. They performed a ceremonial flag folding. Some were in wheelchairs. Some were on crutches. Some carried the flags of fallen soldiers. They were arrested. I want to be clear about what that means — and what it does not mean. It does not mean these veterans were rioters, criminals, or a threat. They entered the building legally, through security checkpoints, as any citizen may. The technical violation — demonstrating inside a congressional building without a permit — is a minor regulatory infraction, the same charge applied to hundreds of peaceful protesters in that same rotunda over recent years. It carries no moral weight as a condemnation of these individuals or their message. What it does mean is that these veterans made a deliberate and principled choice. They followed the core doctrine of nonviolent civil disobedience as practiced by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the great American protest tradition. They broke a minor rule openly and peacefully, not covertly. They accepted arrest willingly and without resistance. They chose the halls of Congress to maximize moral impact. And they used their own bodies, their own service records, and their own disabilities as the statement itself. This is not radical behavior. It is one of the most honorable traditions in American democracy. Dr. King wrote from the Birmingham jail that one has not only the legal right but the moral responsibility to bear witness against injustice when the injustice being protested is vastly greater than the rule being broken. A war — with its cost in American lives, broken bodies, shattered families, and hundreds of billions of dollars — is exactly that kind of injustice. This is also not without precedent. In April 1971, thousands of Vietnam veterans marched on Washington and threw their medals on the steps of this very Capitol to protest a war they had fought and believed to be wrong. Those men were called radicals at the time. History has judged them differently. These are not professional protesters or outside agitators. They are men and women who raised their right hands and swore an oath to this country. They served. Many were wounded. They know, in ways most of us never will, what war actually costs — not in polling points or press releases, but in bodies and minds and years and families. When people with that experience show up in wheelchairs, accept handcuffs in silence, and ask their government to listen, that is not a problem to be managed. That is a message to be heard. I am asking you to do three things: First, investigate the questions these veterans raised. Is the current military engagement in Iran properly authorized under the War Powers Act? Has there been genuine congressional oversight and debate? The Constitution places the power to declare war with Congress — not the executive. These veterans are asking whether that has been honored, and so am I. Second, ensure that the veterans arrested that day are treated fairly and with the dignity their service demands. They should not face disproportionate consequences for a peaceful act of conscience. Third, meet with representatives of About Face and other veterans’ organizations. Listen to them directly. They came to your building because they believe you have the power to make a difference. I am asking you to prove them right. I am not asking you to agree with every position these veterans hold. I am asking you to take seriously that disciplined, patriotic, service-proven Americans — some of them disabled in the line of duty — felt so unheard that they were willing to be handcuffed in your building to get your attention. They have mine. I hope they now have yours.