WATCH: Senator Gallego Speaks on Senate Floor about Trump’s Dangerous, Short-Sighted Attack in Venezuela

Gallego: "Whatever you call this moment we are in right now, whatever spin Marco Rubio puts on it, at the end of the day, when people are shooting, that is war."

WASHINGTON - Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), an Iraq war combat veteran, spoke on the Senate floor today to call out Trump's dangerous, short-sighted attack in Venezuela this weekend. In his speech, Senator Gallego highlighted the parallels between the administration's military actions in Venezuela and the lead up to the war in Iraq.

Last month, Senator Gallego introduced a War Powers Resolution that would require the U.S. Armed Forces to cease hostilities against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean unless authorized by Congress. The resolution came after months of strikes on alleged drug boats in the region that culminated in U.S.' capture of Venezuelan President Maduro.

Read his remarks below:

25 years ago, I made the best decision of my life and became a U.S. Marine.

I fought in Lima Company 3/25 and fought alongside some of the bravest men I've ever known. Some of my closest friends didn't make it back.

Coming home knowing it was all for an illegal war, for oil, was devastating, and it's still devastating.

And now, 20 years later, here we are again at the same crossroads.

We cannot blindly go into another illegal war for oil.

I know I'm not the only one - I'm not the only veteran - seeing the parallels - the oil, the regime change, the quick declaration of victory without a long-term plan - and we do not want our country to go down this path again.

Of course we know Venezuela has different geopolitical realities, and this won't go down exactly as what we saw in Iraq, but what's the same is this: Trump's reckless use of military power without a plan for what comes next or respect for the men and women who will be sent to fight this war we'll engage in is going to cause problems.

He's shown us that he could care less about the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are screaming from the rooftops right now not to make this mistake again.

If we allow this to continue, I will have to look into the eyes of young men and women in Arizona - working-class kids like everywhere in this country - who are disproportionately the ones who serve in our military and explain what they're risking their lives for.

And I can't, because it is for oil.

The American public does not want this. They do not want to be the world police. They don't want their sons and daughters from Florida, from Arizona, from New Mexico, from New York sent to go fight for Big Oil.

They don't want another forever war. And that's the slippery slope we're going down right now.

When I talk to people in Arizona, they tell me how they want their politicians to focus on health care, on housing, on work so their kids can actually have a job when they graduate college, not to pay these oil companies to invest in Venezuela. That's what Trump campaigned on, but that is what Trump is now saying he is going to do, invest in oil instead of Americans.

Who does this war really benefit? It's clearly not the American people. Trump has done little to help them but certainly to help Big Oil and to satisfy trigger-happy neocons like Marco Rubio.

This is exactly the big moment Marco Rubio has been itching for, and he played Donald Trump like a puppet.

Marco Rubio came into the Senate and lied straight to our faces when he said this was not about regime change. That was not true, and now it's clear to everyone that regime change was always the goal.

That is exactly why I introduced a War Powers Resolution last month, because I knew this moment was coming.

The Constitution is clear. Only Congress has the authority to decide when to go to war.

Whatever you call this moment we are in right now, whatever spin Marco Rubio puts on it, at the end of the day, when people are shooting, it is war. When the President deploys the power of the United States military, it is war.

Now the Trump administration has to answer to what comes next. They must tell us who will govern Venezuela, or how this will end, and they just can't do that now. As a veteran, that terrifies me, and it should terrify you.

This is the same trigger-happy neocon logic that dragged us into Iraq, into a forever war, killing thousands and thousands of Americans, many of them my friends. And the American people have been clear that we do not want to be in another forever war.

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