Did You Vote for This War?
Operation Epic Fury began on February 28. Today marks day 206. No declaration of war. No authorization to use military force. No vote of the United States Congress sent Americans into this fight. Seven months in, the President says the whole thing will “get settled right after the election.” After the election. Not when the mission is finished, and not when Congress signs off. After the votes are counted.
I have sworn an oath twice to support and defend the Constitution of the United States: once when I enlisted in the United States Army and again when I became an attorney. That oath carries no expiration date. That's why I wrote this, and why I am asking you to read to the end.
What This War Has Cost
Start with the people. The Pentagon’s own figures count at least 18 American service members killed. The number of wounded runs anywhere from 417 to 820, depending on which government office you ask, and the Department of Defense (“DoD”) has gone four weeks without reconciling its own books. In a span of two days in July, Iranian attacks killed three soldiers at an air base in Jordan and a fourth in a drone strike on a base in Iraq. Behind every one of those numbers stands a family that answered a knock on the door they will never forget.
The war has killed Iranians too, and many of them never wore a uniform. Iran’s Ministry of Health counted 3,468 people killed between February 28 and April 8 alone, with more than 26,500 wounded. Independent counts put the civilian dead somewhere between 1,030 and 2,362, including at least 254 children.
Then the money. The Congressional Budget Office (“CBO”) puts the cost to the Pentagon at more than $38 billion through August 1, and it warns the war can burn $3 billion or more for every month it continues. The Pentagon refused to answer CBO’s questions, so the budget office built its estimate from public databases and called the result “subject to considerable uncertainty.” Congress can—and should—fix this.
You pay a second bill at the pump. Researchers at Brown University estimate the war has added about $100 billion to what Americans spend on gasoline and diesel, more than $760 for every household in the country. Diesel sold for $5.90 a gallon on the first Monday in September, up roughly 60 percent from a year earlier. Ask a wheat farmer in Grady County or a trucker in Comanche County what $5.90 diesel does to a month.
The war also spends something we cannot buy back quickly. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (“CSIS”) estimates that restocking the interceptors fired in this war will take about four years from the day Congress pays for them. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (“THAAD”) system, which knocks down ballistic missiles high in the atmosphere, entered this war already short after more than 150 of its interceptors went up during the Twelve-Day War.
The Navy is stretched just as thin. In August, the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Daryl Caudle, admitted the service extends carrier deployments “in little chunks, and the families don’t see any endpoint.” The USS Abraham Lincoln passed 300 days at sea, and the USS Gerald Ford was deployed for 326 days, the longest carrier deployments since Vietnam. All this without a declaration of war from Congress.
And then there is the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, about 20 million barrels of oil moved through that narrow channel every day, roughly a fifth of the world’s supply. The International Energy Agency calls what happened next “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas modeled what a long closure does to the world. If the disruption lasts nine months, their model drives West Texas Intermediate crude to $132 a barrel by the end of 2026 and holds global growth down all year. We are more than six months in.
Now the Vice President argues that America cannot leave, because walking away would set off a “worldwide energy crisis.” Follow that logic to its end. The administration started a war; that war choked the strait, and the choked strait is the reason the war cannot end. Call it what it is: a trap. We walked into it with no vote and no plan to walk out, and the Constitution exists to keep any President from doing exactly that.
Nobody Voted for This
Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution gives Congress the power “To declare War.” Article II makes the President Commander in Chief. The Founders split those two powers on purpose. At the Constitutional Convention, our Founding Fathers added the word “make” and wrote “declare” so that the President could repel a sudden attack without waiting on Congress. Everything else belonged to the people’s representatives. The Founders wanted a country that would go to war only when her people, through their elected Congress, agreed that she should.
So, let’s bring that point home. Iran did not attack the United States on February 28. We struck first. We have continued striking for more than 200 days, and in all that time the President has never asked Congress for permission, though the House did pass one War Powers Resolution to end the war. The House must pass another War Powers Resolution, and the Senate must pass it as well. Congress must send a powerful message to the President: bring America’s sons and daughters home.
Why does the vote matter? Because a vote is a record. A war powers resolution forces every member of Congress to stand up and say, in public and on the record, whether this war has the consent of the people’s elected representatives. A joint resolution, the kind that goes to the President, would carry the full force of law if Congress could pass it and override a veto. The Constitution does not ask Congress to win every fight with a President. It asks Congress to show up for the fight and represent the People.
Six Votes, Six Nays
Some attempts have already been made to end this conflict. The House voted six times this year on a resolution directing the President to remove our forces from hostilities with Iran. I checked every one of those roll calls against the official record kept by the Clerk of the House. Here is how Tom Cole voted.
March 5, H. Con. Res. 38: failed 212 to 219. Cole voted Nay.
April 16, H. Con. Res. 40: failed 213 to 214. Cole voted Nay.
May 14, H. Con. Res. 75: failed on a tie, 212 to 212. Cole voted Nay.
June 3, H. Con. Res. 86: passed 215 to 208. Cole voted Nay.
July 23, H. Con. Res. 89: passed 214 to 208. Cole voted Nay.
September 15, H. Con. Res. 93: passed 220 to 204. Cole voted Nay.
Six votes. Six Nays from Representative Cole.
Look closely at April and May. In April, the resolution failed by one vote. In May, it died on a tie. One yes vote from Tom Cole on either day and the resolution would have passed. He did not need to lead. He needed only to support and defend the Constitution for the length of a roll call, and he chose not to.
In September, seven Republicans crossed over and voted with the Democrats, including members from Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and South Carolina. Not one member of the Oklahoma delegation joined them. Both Democrats and Republicans have now voted to bring this war back under the Constitution. Tom Cole never has.
Cole has held OUR seat for nearly 24 years. He chairs the House Committee on Appropriations, the committee that writes every check the Pentagon cashes. No member of the House holds more power over whether this war gets paid for. And every time the question reached the floor, he voted to let the President keep fighting without any accountability.
The Bill Comes Due
In June, the White House asked Congress for an $87.6 billion supplemental appropriation. CBO counts about $42.3 billion of it as tied directly to the war. Analysts at CSIS reviewed the request line by line and found roughly $34.9 billion with no connection to national security: agriculture subsidies, infrastructure repairs, pension funding, and building maintenance. A war bill with billions in unrelated spending stapled to it.
That request runs through the committee Tom Cole chairs. He can call hearings. He can demand that the Pentagon answer the questions it refused to answer for CBO. He can insist that the President come to Congress for an authorization before Congress writes another check. Congress holds the power of the purse for the same reason it holds the power to declare war. The people who pay for a war, and the families who bleed for it, deserve a say in it. Ask Tom Cole which of those things he plans to do.
Oklahomans are practical people. We know what a tank of diesel costs. We know what a seven-month deployment does to a marriage and to the kids waiting at home. And we know the difference between defending this country and wandering into a war that nobody in Washington can explain and nobody in Washington can end.
The Oath
I served in the United States Army. I stood beside the people our system forgets as a Public Defender. Both jobs taught me the same lesson: rules matter most when the powerful want to ignore them. The Constitution carves out no exception for wars that are convenient for a campaign calendar. It says Congress decides.
If you send me to Congress, I will vote to bring this war back under the Constitution at the first opportunity. I will vote against any supplemental appropriation that pays for an unauthorized war. And I will never tell a military family that the timing of an election matters more than the day their loved one comes home.
The President says this war ends after the election. Tom Cole voted six times to let him make that call alone. On November 3, you get a vote of your own. I will ask the question Tom Cole refused to answer on the House floor: if this war is worth fighting, why will no one in Washington stand up and vote for it? It’s time to bring America’s sons and daughters home.
Let me vote to make it happen.
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References
Howard Altman, Retired Patriot Battalion Commander on the Challenges of Defeating Iran’s Barrages, The War Zone, https://www.twz.com/news-features/retired-patriot-battalion-commander-on-the-challenges-of-defeating-irans-barragesCory Smith & Robert Sherman, Trump Tells NewsNation There Is ‘No Truth’ to Reports Iran Damaged US Aircraft, NewsNation, https://www.newsnationnow.com/world/iran-us-war-trump-midterms-strait-of-hormuz/John Pike, Iran War 2026 Operational Report, Day 204, GlobalSecurity.org, https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iran-war-oprep.htmNick Turse, Iran War Has the U.S. Military on the Brink of a “Breakdown”, The Intercept, https://theintercept.com/2026/09/15/iran-war-us-military-bases/Civilian Casualties and Housing Damage in Iran, National Iranian American Council, https://niacouncil.org/civilian-casualties-and-housing-damage-in-iran/U.N.-Backed Experts Cite Possible U.S. War Crimes in Iran, Including a School Attack, NPR, https://www.npr.org/2026/09/17/nx-s1-5972934/us-iran-war-un-report-alleged-war-crimesLisa Mascaro, Iran War Has Cost the U.S. More Than $38 Billion So Far, Budget Office Says, PBS NewsHour, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/iran-war-has-cost-the-u-s-more-than-38-billion-so-far-budget-office-saysBen Berkowitz, Iran War Drives $100 Billion in Extra Energy Costs for U.S. Consumers, Axios, https://www.axios.com/2026/09/07/iran-gas-prices-diesel-100-billionMark F. Cancian & Chris H. Park, Last Rounds? Status of Key Munitions at the Iran War Ceasefire, Center for Strategic and International Studies, https://www.csis.org/analysis/last-rounds-status-key-munitions-iran-war-ceasefireSam LaGrone, Navy Planning for Extended Carrier Deployments as Iran Conflict Continues, CNO, MCPON Say, USNI News, https://news.usni.org/2026/08/26/navy-planning-for-extended-carrier-deployments-as-iran-conflict-continues-cno-mcpon-saySamantha Gross & Ryan Beane, From Chokepoint to Crisis: The Strait of Hormuz and Global Oil Markets, Brookings Institution, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/from-chokepoint-to-crisis-the-strait-of-hormuz-and-global-oil-markets/Lutz Kilian et al., What the Closure of the Strait of Hormuz Means for the Global Economy, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2026/0320Vance Warns US Exit Could Trigger ‘Worldwide Energy Crisis’ as Iran Vows to Resist, Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/iran-war-powers-vote-trump-strait-hormuz-saudi-strikes-09-16-26The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription, art. I, § 8, cl. 11, National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcriptScott Bomboy, Does the War Powers Resolution Debate Take on a New Context in the Iran Conflict?, National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/does-the-war-powers-resolution-debate-take-on-a-new-context-in-the-iran-conflictJames Madison, Madison Debates, August 17, 1787, The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_817.aspScott R. Anderson, What Congressional Resolutions Mean for the War in Iran, Lawfare, https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-congressional-resolutions-mean-for-the-war-in-iranOffice of the Clerk, Roll Call 85, H. Con. Res. 38 (Mar. 5, 2026), U.S. House of Representatives, https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202685Office of the Clerk, Roll Call 114, H. Con. Res. 40 (Apr. 16, 2026), U.S. House of Representatives, https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026114Office of the Clerk, Roll Call 170, H. Con. Res. 75 (May 14, 2026), U.S. House of Representatives, https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026170Office of the Clerk, Roll Call 199, H. Con. Res. 86 (June 3, 2026), U.S. House of Representatives, https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026199Office of the Clerk, Roll Call 282, H. Con. Res. 89 (July 23, 2026), U.S. House of Representatives, https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026282Office of the Clerk, Roll Call 307, H. Con. Res. 93 (Sept. 15, 2026), U.S. House of Representatives, https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026307House Votes for a Third Time to End the Iran War as Conflict Drags On, DTN Progressive Farmer (Associated Press), https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/world-policy/article/2026/09/16/house-votes-third-time-end-iran-warMark F. Cancian & Chris H. Park, War Costs Make Up a Third of the $87.6 Billion Supplemental Request, Center for Strategic and International Studies, https://www.csis.org/analysis/war-costs-make-third-876-billion-supplemental-requestBo Erickson & Jason Lange, Just One in Three Americans Backs Iran War, Most Unsure of Trump’s Goals, Poll Finds, Military Times, https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/07/31/just-one-in-three-americans-back-iran-war-most-unsure-of-trumps-goals-poll-finds/US Public Support for Iran War Falls as Trump Approval at Record Low: Poll, Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/24/us-public-support-for-iran-war-falls-as-trump-approval-at-record-low-poll