At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) spoke about handling Iran.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Perry. I now recognize for five minutes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Castro.
00:06Thank you, Chairman. Thank you all for your testimony today.
00:10Ms. Stroll, in your testimony, you recommend that the Congress, quote,
00:14strengthen the administration's hand by beginning the process to conditionally authorize the use of military force
00:20against Iran's nuclear program if the regime proves unwilling to take sufficient steps to ensure that it will not acquire nuclear weapons.
00:28And I guess that recommendation gives me some concern based on history.
00:34This was the same argument made to justify voting for the Iraq War in 2002.
00:40In debates in the Congress, they argued that a show of resolve by Congress by preemptively authorizing the use of military force against Iraq
00:47would strengthen the Bush administration's hand in negotiations and force Saddam Hussein to come to the table.
00:53What ensued with the Iraq War was one of the biggest mistakes that our country has made in decades.
00:59And I don't think any of us, or most of us at least, want to repeat that same mistake.
01:04And I'm concerned with everything going on now that we could with Iran.
01:09The American people are not looking to get into another protracted war in the Middle East.
01:13I think most folks would agree with that.
01:15I'm also skeptical that the votes are there for such a war.
01:20Skeptical that the votes are there.
01:23In February 2020, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to end hostilities with Iran after the strike on Soleimani.
01:31During the congressional debates on the repeal of the 2002 Iraq AUMF,
01:35some Republicans attempted to ensure that the law could still be used to strike Iranian-backed proxies.
01:40In response, a bipartisan majority in the Senate, including with the crucial support of now Vice President J.D. Vance,
01:47voted 60 to 36 to stop those efforts.
01:51And so my question is, would you say that we should strengthen the administration's negotiating hand
01:55by preemptively authorizing the use of military force against Iran?
01:59Do you trust Donald Trump and his administration with that responsibility at this time?
02:05Thank you so much for this question, and I think it's a very important point.
02:09So the words I chose were begin the process to conditionally authorize,
02:14and I think those two clauses are important in the point I'm making.
02:17One is begin the process.
02:19That is because I don't think that this decision should be left in the hands of any president
02:23without advice and consent and consultation with Congress.
02:27And conditionally, because I'm not recommending preemptive authorization,
02:31I am recommending that by members of Congress having debate about the conditions and circumstances
02:39under which it would approve use of military force,
02:42it will send a signal of bipartisan consensus and commitment
02:46that that credible military option remains on the table should negotiations fail.
02:52And I want to be very clear that my recommendation associated with Mr. Rule
02:56is that we should pursue negotiations first,
02:58because no military action will eliminate the knowledge and the entire program overnight.
03:05And so I guess what would the, per your recommendation, what would that trigger be?
03:11When do you start down that road?
03:12First, I think the intelligence community should be providing regular updates to members of Congress
03:20in a closed and classified atmosphere on exactly what the steps are
03:24that the intelligence community understands Iran to be taking.
03:28And secondly, I think there should be consultations about exactly what is being contemplated
03:34when we talk about military strikes on Iran.
03:36Would you require that we go through a JCPOA-type negotiation
03:40before going down that road?
03:44I think that testing the diplomatic waters with the regime,
03:50either in a multilateral context,
03:52in the indirect negotiations that appear to be contemplated at this moment,
03:56either way, a negotiated settlement is by far easier to verify in implementation
04:05and blocking Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon than military force,
04:09which on the other side, we don't know what regime decision-making would be,
04:13we don't know what Iranian decision-making would be,
04:15and we don't know what the war looks like on the other side of that.
04:19And this is why I think there's such serious issues that merit congressional input.
04:25And also for the other witnesses, just for the record, as we're having this discussion,
04:30do you believe that we should do a preemptive AUMF?
04:33I associate myself with Ms. Stroll's comments.
04:38We should have a thoughtful process in which Congress plays its rightful role as an institution,
04:45but the Iranians must understand that endless negotiations aren't the only strategy of the United States.
04:53Let me check in with you.
04:55Yes, and I agree with Ms. Stroll and Mr. Ruhl.
04:59I yield back.
05:00Thank you, Mr. Castro.