The first Congressional challenge to President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran failed Wednesday in the U.S. Senate.
The war powers resolution failed in the chamber by a 53-47 vote, with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul joining Democrats and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman joining Republicans.
The bill would have called for removing “the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force,” according to NBC News.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth was one of the 47 votes in favor of the resolution. She served in the Iraq War with an Illinois Army Reserve unit, and was seriously wounded in combat in 2004.
She was one of the lawmakers who received an intelligence briefing on the war Tuesday, and she says she does not believe Trump when he says there was an imminent threat of attack by the Iranian military which required U.S. intervention.
Duckworth says she will stand up for those in uniform and would support justified military action, but says Trump hasn’t come close to clearing that bar.
“If America is truly under attack, if we truly are in jeopardy, then I would be the first, ‘hey, I still have my old boots and my old uniform,’” she said. “I’ll put it on if they want a broken down old helicopter pilot. But at the end of the day, this administration has not justified their actions so far.”
The sister of 20-year-old Army reservist Declan Coady is remembering her brother after he was killed in Iranian retaliation attacks. She said the family had been planning to celebrate his 21st birthday when he returned home.
Duckworth lost both of her legs when her Black Hawk helicopter was struck by rocket-propelled grenades during Operation: Enduring Freedom.
She says she felt the loss of four military reservists, the first four fatalities in the conflict, viscerally, as all four were soldiers from America’s heartland.
“These are our citizen soldiers. These are the people who have everyday lives and yet volunteer to serve,” she said. “Take time out of their everyday to serve and stay ready so that when the nation calls them to take off their suit jackets, to take of their hard hats and put their uniforms on and go into combat, they respond. And many of them, like I did, volunteer to go into the combat zone. And frankly, they deserve leadership that will not waste that sacrifice, that willingness.”
Duckworth says she understands the difficulty a solider could face in obeying orders from the commander-in-chief while opposing the war, and says she fully supports those in uniform during turbulent times.
“I walked that line in Iraq where I did not believe in the war in Iraq, but I am proud of my service and I volunteered to go because I believe in the Constitution of the United States,” she said. “That was my oath of office as an army officer. It’s my oath office as a member of the United States Senate. And frankly, it’s Donald Trump’s oath of office as the president of the United States to protect and defend the constitution. And he’s not lived up to that oath of office, our men and women in uniform.”
