Earlier this month Senator Mazie Hirono's office issued the following:
January 3, 2020
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, issued the following statement on the U.S. airstrikes that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
“General Soleimani was a reprehensible figure responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American service members and thousands of innocent people around the world.
“His death in a U.S. airstrike further escalates hostilities and increases the potential for widespread violence in a part of the world already fraught with peril.
“In normal times, we could have confidence that the President – fully cognizant of the potential ramifications of this strike – was mobilizing a whole of government response and coordinating with our allies to seek a diplomatic outcome. But these are not normal times.
“Congress must reassert its Constitutional responsibility and demand the president seek authorization prior to any military conflict with Iran.”
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