National Interest

by William D. Hartung

    Rather than accept the Trump administration’s calls for greater military spending, Congress should reassert its constitutional war powers.

    A recent Defense One report provided a deeper understanding of the likely costs of the war in Iran. Damage to US naval bases in the Persian Gulf now means that the only safe place to repair US ships in the region is the US base at Diego Garcia—2,500 miles from the Gulf. This has slowed maintenance and forced ships to stay at sea without a port call much longer than recommended. This will increase repair costs down the road and it will continue to cause serious hardships to Navy personnel serving on those ships.

    And those hardships were extremely severe. The Navy has acknowledged that conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was at sea without a port call for the longest stretch in US history, were so miserable that eight sailors attempted to commit suicide.

    According to former Naval Commander Bryan Clark, maintenance times for Navy combat ships involved in the Iran War could double because of long, uninterrupted periods at sea, from seven or eight months to a year or a year and a half.

    The maintenance crisis is just the latest unexpected cost of the war. The Trump administration didn’t consider that Iranian strikes could so damage bases in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait that it would be unsafe for US ships to use ports there.

    There have also been discussions about building new bases farther away in the region, rather than repairing existing ones. This would cost untold millions, or possibly even billions.

    This is yet another reason to engage in more careful deliberations before launching renewed strikes on Iran, as the administration has signaled it might after the midterm elections. These deliberations should include finally seeking congressional approval and allowing for greater media and public debate. None of this happened before going to war with Iran. Doing so might have led to forgoing this war altogether, eliminating the extensive human and economic costs it has incurred, with more to come.

    The munitions shortage is another unexpected consequence of the war on Iran. President Donald Trump announced that US intervention would result in a quick victory over Iran, but the conflict is now in its seventh month. Large numbers of costly interceptors have been expended in efforts to shoot down Iranian drones, with mixed success, as the damage to US bases indicates. And supplies for Ukraine, fully justified to help that nation respond to fight back against a Russian invasion, have depleted artillery shells.

    The administration has used this so-called munitions crisis as a leading argument for its massive proposed $500 billion increase in the Pentagon budget. But the costs of replacing munitions would be a tiny fraction of the $500 billion figure. Congress should demand a transparent accounting of the Pentagon’s actual munitions needs and it should not receive a penny more. Some or all of those funds could shift to wasteful, unworkable programs like Golden Dome.

    Congress should also demand cheaper, more reliable interceptors and artillery shells. The new munitions should be simple enough that they can be produced more quickly than current systems. Developing a new generation of munitions will take time, so the sooner the Pentagon starts the process, the better.

    As the costs of the Iran War mount and the administration asks for a record Pentagon budget, it is time for lawmakers to assert their constitutional and legal rights to block any conflict not approved by Congress.