U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Says He Opposes Trump’s Iran War, But For the Wrong Reasons, and Doesn’t Follow Through With His Opposition

By David Starr

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a corporate/neoliberal/establishment Democrat, wouldn’t exactly win a popularity contest with the Democratic base nowadays. Schumer sticks to the outdated and often-failed strategy of overly-appeasing the Republican base and caves to the GOP in the name of “bi-partisanship.”

Things, however, have changed. Bi-partisanship is dead because of the risk of collaborating with the fascist Republican Party. And it’s proven to be fascist, given its agenda, including Project 2025; spurred on by the Trump regime.

Schumer has taken on a “firm” position in opposing Trump’s Iran War. But for the wrong reasons. While Schumer calls the war an utter disaster, he still sticks to the establishment position of demonizing Iran. 

While I don’t support theocracies, Iran was attacked for not playing along with the U.S. empire’s imperial objectives. And it did not attack the United States. Thus, the war is a terrorist act and a violation of international law committed by the U.S. and Israel.

Conducting airstrikes on an Iranian elementary school and thus killing about 165 little girls is terrorism, pure and simple.

I don’t think, though, that Schumer is prioritizing this as an outrage, but rather wanting to find a way to conduct a “kinder and gentler” war against Iran. 

On Secular Talk, there was a segment showing Morning Joe Scaborough lambasting Schumer because the latter expressed doubts about the motives of the war. But Schumer eventually caved to Scarborough, agreeing on the decision to go to war, but not the Trump regime’s way.

The organization, Senate Democrats, quoted a statement Schumer made about Trump and his Iran War:

“Donald Trump took America to war with no plan to win it and no plan to end it. Eighteen American service members are dead. Gas prices have surged. Iran is holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage. America is less secure, the region’s more dangerous, and the president still can’t even explain what victory looks like or how this war ends.”

Notice that Iran is implied to be the villain. But despite his opposition to Trump, Schumer does not follow through condemning the U.S. and Israel for war crimes, which is the reality.

On C-Span, Schumer spoke to the Senate about a war powers resolution:

“The hole Donald Trump is digging himself into in Iran has turned into a crater. Somehow, Trump has convinced himself that the American people are cheering him on, on this blunder, rather than crying out to bring our troops home. Democrats are going to force another vote on our war powers resolution to end this war, get our troops out of harm’s way, and force Trump to face the reality of this catastrophe. 

“Will our Republican colleagues join us, or are they going to just keep their heads in the sand? They know how bad this is. They’re hearing it from one end of the country to the other. But they’re so afraid of speaking truth to power, of telling Donald Trump that he’s wrong that they, almost time after time, the vast majority of them vote to go along with this war that is not achieving any goals and is raising our gas prices. 

“Trump said the American people, they’re not against the war. Trump wake up, no one wants this war but you and your cronies and the supine Republican senators and congressmen who go along. The American people are against this war.”

Schumer does sound firm in his opposition to Trump’s war, but will he follow through? The answer is probably no. Schumer knows most U.S. citizens oppose the war, especially within the Democratic base. He knows he’s under fire for his neoliberal/establishment positions and his desire for bi-partisanship. But one does not compromise with a fascist party, which the Republicans are.

Schumer used a word which is pathetically familiar, and that is the word, “blunder.” This has been used in past U.S. imperial wars and is a politically-spineless term. It doesn’t begin to address the U.S. empire’s war crimes, past and present.

The neoliberal/establishment Democrats like Chuck Schumer really won’t change. They, like Republicans, are tied to big business, the wealthy and Israel-related PACS. The sooner they are gone, the better to oppose the GOP and fight for real change.