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Jun 22, 2025
Published comments by Greg Mello: (see article below)
So, New Mexico Democrats are shocked, shocked, that Trump would order military action without a congressional declaration of war. As constitutional scholar and lawyer Jonathan Turley points out, that has been done 125 times since World War II. (https://jonathanturley.org/2025/06/22/the-claude-rains-school-of-constitutional-law-democrats-denounce-iranian-attack-as-unconstitutional/#more-233013). William Blum's Killing Hope is a standard reference for U.S. coups (see https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list).
It is not at all shocking that Trump would do this, but as I wrote yesterday in this space it was a terrible decision that will have long-term negative consequences for U.S. national security. (https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/alarm-grows-after-the-u-s-inserts-itself-into-israels-war-against-iran-with-strikes/article_06e5eef6-6414-552f-aeb3-47e446eba13b.html,)
All 17 U.S. intel agencies had agreed that Iran was not developing any nuclear weapons. Iran had a perfect right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, which it was doing. Iran was probably the most inspected country in the NPT. Israel, the aggressor (and genocider in Palestine) stands outside the NPT, and has never been inspected under that or any other international law regime (except for an incompetent or lying inspection decades ago involving LANL and LLNL).
Trump, the runaway narcissist, has become a tool of Israel. His recent 180-degree reversal on the central question of the purpose of his actions -- whether the U.S. is seeking regime change or not, as opposed to the "peace" he and his cabinet spoke about a day prior -- may be evidence of the onset of increasing mental problems, or else they simply mirror the impossible schizophrenia between his MAGA voter base and his wealthy backers plus the Israeli lobby and the permanent deep national security state. Trump is more acted upon than acting. In any case, regime change is the goal.
It is regarding that deep national security state to which more attention should be turned. Observers have noted the continuity of Trump's actions with the Rumsfeld/Cheney agenda of late 2001, as revealed by General Petreaus (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/9/22/us-plans-to-attack-seven-muslim-states). We can go back further, to the triumphalist Wolfowitz Doctrine of 1992 (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/etc/wolf.html), which was not at all withdrawn but became the armature of U.S. policy in the post-Cold-War era.
The roots of that doctrine go back much further, to the foundations of the proposed, and then realized, "American Century" of Henry Luce during WWII. Beyond that, they go back to Halford Mackinder, and so on back to the early British Empire. The whole MAGA idea is in part (but not entirely) based on a desperate nostalgia to reestablish the vanished prosperity and hopefulness of the early post-war decades.
But it's too late. The sun is setting on the American Empire, and the desperate flailing of President Trump won't put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.
Where are our Democrats in this? They are posturing hypocritically, as they always do. Deep in the pockets of the military-nuclear complex, they represent those interests far more than they do the interests of New Mexicans. They never criticized Democratic presidents who violated the Constitution in the same way Trump is doing, and they remain focused on getting nuclear and military money for this state. What does that nuclear money buy? Not just a nuclear deterrent, so-called, but "more nuclear options for the President."
On its face, the primary reason we have this horrible President lies in the internal corruption of the Democratic Party, which stamped out its own better candidates, and the very strange ideas it has taken into its bosom as hoped-for bases for electoral victories. To see the deeper reasons for our downward spiral we need mirrors.
New Mexico’s congressional delegates spoke out Sunday against the overnight U.S. attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran, arguing President Donald Trump’s decision to order the strikes without congressional authorization conflicted with the Constitution.
The all-Democratic five-member delegation urged a return to diplomacy.
“War should not be entered into on a whim by a single person,” U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández said in a statement. “We must do everything we can to protect American lives and our military in every base, in every place. Trump’s acts are unconstitutional.”
Trump’s bombardment of the Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites inserts the U.S. into Israel’s war to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, though it’s not yet clear if the U.S. will continue to engage in the conflict.
Republican leaders in Congress heralded the move as a necessary show of military strength, with House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana posting on X, formerly Twitter, “The President made the right call, and did what he needed to do.”
Johnson added, “Leaders in Congress were aware of the urgency of this situation and the Commander-in-Chief evaluated that the imminent danger outweighed the time it would take for Congress to act.”
New Mexico delegates, however, denounced Trump’s actions, which they said are likely to escalate conflict in the region.
“Americans have made it clear they do not want to be dragged into another endless war in the Middle East,” U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján said in a statement. “Yet President Trump went against the American people without sharing any evidence to prove these military strikes would protect our homeland security.”
Trump’s actions have sparked debates on presidential authority, since Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives the power to declare war to Congress.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich made that point plainly in a social media post, writing, “Mr. President, let’s be clear: Only Congress has the power to declare war, and we have not. What we urgently need is to return to diplomacy, even if I am skeptical in this president’s ability to do that, or much else.”
“This kind of unchecked executive action undermines our democratic institutions and sets a perilous precedent,” U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez added in a statement. “I urge the president to bring us back from the brink of war and pursue a strategy grounded in strength, diplomacy, and lasting peace.”
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, in a post on X, urged fellow members of Congress to act in response to Trump’s actions.
“Congress must rein in this President,” she wrote. “To my GOP colleagues who have remained silent, it is time to step up.”
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