Castro Statement on Trump’s Funding Request for Iran War

Castro Statement on Trump's Funding Request for Iran War

SAN ANTONIO, TX - Today, Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) released the following statement:

"The president is asking for an extra $350 billion for his reckless war against Iran.

"I will vote not to fund this illegal war, and will vote no.

"The president started this war under false pretenses and without congressional authorization. He claimed that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States. It didn't. They did not have a weapon that could strike the United States and there was no indication that they were going to target us.

"Over the last month, President Trump's disastrous Iran War has turned into one of the biggest national security blunders in the last generation. Iran has been able to effectively close the Straits of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world's oil and significant amounts of fertilizer and other critical products flow through.

"Americans everywhere are facing higher gas prices and grocery bills.

"I am alarmed by rising American casualties, the destruction of critical military equipment, the rapidly depleting stocks of munitions, and the attacks on civilian targets in Iran.

"I am most alarmed by the President's consideration of a significant ground invasion that will only cost more American lives and commit another generation of Americans to a regime change war in the Middle East.

"Even countries like Israel, which are actually directly threatened by Iran, are not willing to send ground troops into Iran. The United States should not either.

"Rather than immediately ending this war, which he never should have started, by negotiating a ceasefire and a diplomatic agreement to re-open the Straits of Hormuz, the President is asking Americans to pay for it by cutting services they rely on like Medicaid and Medicare.

"A vote to fund this illegal war is a vote for this illegal war. I will vote no."