U.S. military contingents in the Pacific are standing by following the U.S. military’s strike against Iran this weekend.
The National Guard in Hawai‘i is not activating or deploying locally following the attack that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday. The Hawai‘i National Guard issued a brief statement Monday confirming that the Air and Army National Guards are “standing by and are in constant communication with Governor [Josh] Green.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command could not comment on the situation Monday.
Meanwhile, all four of Hawai‘i’s Congressional delegates have issued statements demanding accountability from President Donald Trump and his administration. All four statements accused Trump of defying the Constitution and attempting to start a war without Congressional authorization.
“In starting this conflict, President Trump neither sought authorization from Congress nor presented the American people with evidence of an imminent threat that would justify bypassing it,” read Rep. Jill Tokuda’s remarks on the matter. “The Constitution is clear: the power to take this nation to war does not rest with one person alone.”
Rep. Ed Case’s statement also questioned Trump’s actions, but also conceded that some form of intervention in Iran may have been in the U.S.’ interest.
“Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them against us, and so there may be circumstances under which war would be our only option,” Case wrote. “But as there has been no demonstration of an imminent threat to our country, this action is not authorized and that cannot be ignored.”
Case’s statement called for Trump to “fully explain to Congress and the American people the imminent threat we face justifying this action and the specific case for war.” It also included a link to a survey polling Hawai‘i residents anonymously on their concerns regarding Iran and other political priorities.
Sen. Brian Schatz spoke on the Senate floor Monday, calling the U.S.’ Iran intervention a “war of choice” that could have been avoided had Trump not chosen in 2018 to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.
“This is the president of the United States asserting that he can do whatever he wants, wherever he wants, with the most powerful military in history at his disposal,” Schatz said, adding that Trump has no coherent military strategy and that his administration has concocted “indecipherable” ad hoc justifications for the strike after the fact.
“[Secretary of State Marco Rubio] said the imminent threat … to the United States was that Israel was going to attack Iran, and we anticipated that in retaliation, Iran was going to attack our interests, therefore imminent threat,” Schatz said.
While Schatz added that Iran is “a malevolent actor in the region and even across the planet” he said that “the world is full of bad guys in power” and that the U.S. track record for military intervention in the Middle East suggests that Trump’s actions will “metastasize” in the region.
For her part, Sen. Mazie Hirono echoed her colleagues, voicing concerns that American soldiers are being recklessly put at risk.
Hirono and Schatz also both endorsed a forthcoming “War Powers Resolution,” to be introduced by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine that would block the use of military force in Iran.
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