Congress Must Not Let Opposition to Trump Become Opposition to Peace
Washington, D.C. — On Sunday, President Donald Trump and Iranian officials announced that they have reached an initial peace deal. Demand Progress has been highly critical of President Trump’s decision to launch the war and has led multiple efforts to support war powers resolutions to end it.
The following is a statement from Demand Progress Senior Policy Advisor Cavan Kharrazian:
“Any tangible progress towards ending this unnecessary, reckless and unconstitutional war with Iran should be welcomed. And this deal is tangible progress. This war inflicted immense human suffering, claimed countless lives, destabilized the region, disrupted the global economy and wasted billions of dollars that could have been spent on urgent needs at home. Any opportunity to end it and return to negotiations should be embraced.
The ceasefire and negotiating process remain fragile. Opponents of a peaceful resolution, both in the region and in Washington, will undoubtedly again seek to undermine talks through military provocations, unrealistic demands and poison pills designed to make negotiations fail.
Members of Congress should be wary of those efforts and resist the temptation to let opposition to President Trump become opposition to peace. Democrats do not need to praise Trump or excuse the decisions that led to this war to recognize that ending a disastrous conflict is undeniably preferable to prolonging it. If the broad contours of an agreement end up resembling outcomes that could have been achieved through negotiations before the war, that is an indictment of the war, not an argument against ending it.
In the next 60 days, members of Congress should do everything in their power to give this process a chance to succeed and prevent a return to catastrophic war. This is not the moment to use a fragile opening to score partisan points or impose new conditions that make negotiations impossible. The task now is not to find new reasons for peace efforts to fail. It is to ensure that they have every opportunity to succeed.”