Congressman Adam Smith

And if a war is widely unpopular and Congress is part of driving home that message, that will cause the president to recalculate.

This president seems somewhat immune to that.

And the Republican Party seems somewhat immune to public opinion right now.

So that isn't working as well.

But that's what we can do.

But the bottom line answer to your question is, yes, the president has a lot more power than we do.

We have to be persistent and creative to try to contain and control his use of the military.

Well, the sanctions are different than war.

Entirely different conversation.

Look, I want to give the executive branch, you know, power to do foreign policy.

And certainly sanctions have historically been something that the president has had a fair amount of control over.

So I see it as an entirely different conversation.

And look, I am not unmindful of the challenge that Iran presents.

Now, I think the maximum pressure campaign of using sanctions was actually working before we stupidly stumbled into this war.

I didn't want to tie the president's hands to negotiate.

I've long been of the opinion, and this war, I think, is proving me correct, that as difficult as the Iranian problem is and as problematic as they are, that diplomacy and negotiations is the better option than war.

So, yes, I wanted to preserve the president's decision space to make those decisions, to confront the Iranian challenge without stumbling into the catastrophe that is the current conflict in the Middle East.

Sure.

There are several different layers here.

Let me try to walk through this quickly.