Opinion polls show that a majority of Americans oppose military action against Venezuela, where President Trump is increasing military pressure.
Republicans in the US Senate have rejected a bill that would have required US President Donald Trump to seek Congressional approval for a military strike against Venezuela.
On Thursday, two Republicans crossed political lines to join Democrats in voting for the bill, but their support was not enough to pass it, and the bill failed by a vote of 51 to 49.
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Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said in a speech that “we should not go to war without a vote of Congress.”
The vote came amid a buildup of U.S. forces off the coast of South America and a series of military attacks targeting ships in international waters off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia that have left at least 65 people dead.
The United States has claimed, without providing evidence, that the ships it bombed were transporting drugs, but Latin American leaders, some members of Congress, international law experts, and families of the dead have described the U.S. attack as extrajudicial killings and say most of those killed were fishermen.
There are now growing fears that President Trump will use military deployments in the region, including thousands of U.S. soldiers, nuclear submarines and a fleet of warships accompanying the U.S. Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, to launch an attack on Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
The US government has accused President Maduro of drug trafficking, and President Trump has threatened to attack Venezuelan soil.
“It’s no secret that this is more about potential regime change,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Thursday, referring to President Trump’s military stance toward Venezuela.
“If that’s the direction this administration is going, and what we’re risking is involvement in war, then we need to hear from Congress on this,” he said.
Early Thursday, two U.S. B-52 bombers flew over the Caribbean Sea along the Venezuelan coast, according to flight tracking data.
The two bombers flew parallel to the Venezuelan coast, circled northeast of Caracas, then returned along the coast, turned north and flew further offshore, according to data from tracking website Flightradar24.
The presence of U.S. bombers off the coast of Venezuela marks at least the fourth time that U.S. military aircraft have flown near the Venezuelan border since mid-October, with one previous flight involving a B-52 and the other two flights involving B-1B bombers.
There is little public support in the United States for attacking Venezuela.
A recent poll found that only 18% of Americans support even the limited use of military force to topple Maduro’s government.
The YouGov survey also found that 74% of Americans believe the president should not be able to carry out military attacks overseas without Congressional approval, in line with the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.
But Republican lawmakers have embraced the framework of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut off the flow of drugs to the United States, condoning recent attacks on ships in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean.
The question of the legality of these attacks under U.S. and international law does not seem to be a major concern for many Republicans.
Sen. Jim Risch, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed support for the airstrike, saying, “President Trump took decisive action to protect thousands of Americans from deadly drugs.”
On Thursday, only two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, left the party to join Democrats in supporting legislation that would limit President Trump’s ability to unilaterally wage war, although some conservatives have voiced dissatisfaction with the possibility of war with Venezuela.
Trump campaigned on a promise to withdraw the United States from foreign military involvement.
In recent years, Congress has occasionally reaffirmed its position and sought to impose limits on foreign military action through the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which reaffirmed that only Congress had the power to declare war.
