- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
On Monday, the president’s lack of a plan in Iran was outlined in stark terms in a letter to Congress obtained by CBS News officially informing lawmakers of the strikes.
“Although the United States desires a quick and enduring peace, it is not possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that may be necessary,” Trump said in the letter.
U.S. forces “remain postured to take further action… to address further threats and attacks upon the United States or its allies and partners,” he continued.
The letter was sent under the War Powers Act, a 1973 resolution requiring the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying U.S. forces if Congress has not declared war. The deployment cannot last more than 60 days without congressional approval.



Yeah, it was made at a time when the concept of a war was a months long preparation of deploying troops and moving assets into place. They didn’t anticipate just attacking countries overnight.
This was a months- or weeks-long preparation. It’s been known for a while that the US was moving aircraft carriers towards Iran. This absolutely did not happen overnight.
The BBC from 2026-02-20
Edit: and earlier, Military.com from 2026-01-29
Half of US state capitals are in the middle of states because they were created at a time when travel times were large enough that you wanted to minimise them for political centres. I’m assuming this was around the same time so maybe it even took time to get congress together?