Congressional 'cowards' blasted by ex-Pentagon official for letting Trump push US to the brink of war with Iran

On MSNBC Saturday, Ret. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a former aide to Secretary of State Colin Powell, blasted Congress for its role in relinquishing the military power to President Donald Trump that he would require to launch a full-scale war against Iran.

"The leadership in the Congress is just unconscionable," said Wilkerson. "Look at what they did recently with the NDAA, approving a profane amount of money for the Defense Department but ... eliminating amendments that would have gotten the United States out of the disastrous, brutal war in Yemen, eliminating amendments that would have caused the Congress to exert its war power and tell the president, if you're going to use force against Iraq, you got to come here first. They eliminated all that."

"So you got a bunch of cowards in the Congress, and worse, you've got people who are complicit with this warfare state, with this state that has to live for making war on other countries," said Wilkerson. "We have taken this situation which was tense as it could be already, and we escalated it majorly with no plan for the next step."

Watch below: