更新于2026年3月4日，美国东部时间下午6:20 | 扎克瑞·B·沃尔夫分析
一名男子站在一栋建筑的屋顶上，看着2026年3月3日对伊朗首都德黑兰发动打击后升起的烟雾。
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当两个国家攻击第三个国家、杀死其领导人并试图摧毁其军队时，这显然是“战争”，正如美国和以色列对伊朗所做的那样。
但现代美国领导人以一种奇怪的方式回避美国宪法，这使得名称变得复杂。
特朗普政府确实希望将五角大楼称为“战争部”，这是为了纪念世界大战时期，他和五角大楼负责人彼得·赫格塞斯称，当时美国军方更习惯于胜利。
但他们不想正式请求国会对伊朗宣战，因为宪法文本要求如此，而伍德罗·威尔逊总统和富兰克林·罗斯福总统在经过多年内部辩论和针对美国人的直接攻击后都曾这样做。
国会议员们没有行使自己的权威，而是准备在周三的参议院和周四的众议院挫败要求进行辩论并投票授权特朗普发动战争的努力。
世界大战期间，美国会宣战
罗斯福的“将永远铭刻在耻辱柱上的日子”演讲，是在日本袭击珍珠港后不到24小时发表的，他正式请求国会宣战。
“我请求国会宣布，自1941年12月7日星期日日本无端和怯懦的袭击以来，美国与日本帝国之间已处于战争状态。”罗斯福说道。国会予以批准。
伍德罗·威尔逊在1917年向国会发表演讲，请求宣战。经过多年试图保持某种中立状态后，威尔逊称，在截获齐默尔曼电报（一份德国提议与墨西哥结盟对抗美国的加密通信）后，战争已不可避免。
现在，总统们直接行动
特朗普根据1973年的一项法律，用两页纸的文件通知国会他对伊朗发动的战争。该文件宣布为“集体自卫”而采取“军事行动”，尽管这一次是美国发动了突袭。
“集体自卫”这一术语很重要，因为它出现在《联合国宪章》第51条中，是联合国安理会授权战争的例外情况。
富兰克林·D·罗斯福总统于1941年12月8日向国会发表演讲。
Fotosearch/Archive Photos/Getty Images
唐纳德·特朗普总统于2026年2月24日在华盛顿国会大厦众议院发表国情咨文。
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
没有详细解释
特朗普上周在国情咨文演讲中有机会更完整地阐述开战理由，但他在演讲中几乎没有提及伊朗。不过，他确实花时间通过1776年《独立宣言》（相当于对大不列颠宣战）纪念美国建国250周年。
几乎是战争但不正式称为战争
因此，伊朗冲突显然是一场战争，但美国政府不会在技术上称之为战争。这类似于“战争部”是“国防部”的“次要”名称，而“国防部”是国会赋予它的正式名称。
美国历史上共有11次宣战，自二战以来没有再宣战，尽管美国在随后几年参与了朝鲜、越南、伊拉克和阿富汗等国的血腥战争。
总统不再请求国会许可
哈里·杜鲁门总统在大规模朝鲜战争中没有请求国会许可，他的政府称之为“国际警察行动”。国会没有反对，实际上还延长了军事征兵并为这场未经宣战的战争拨款。
越南战争是另一场未经宣战的战争，之后国会试图重新确立自身权威。
林登·B·约翰逊总统在1964年请求国会授权在越南使用武力，原因是“东京湾事件”中美国船只受到攻击。后来查明，这些攻击并未如军方所说发生。在不知道真相的情况下，只有两名参议员反对《东京湾决议》。美国陷入了越南战争的泥潭。
林登·约翰逊总统于1964年10月8日签署《东京湾决议》。
MPI/Archive Photos/Getty Images
越南战争后，国会试图收回部分权力
1971年，国会在理查德·尼克松总统的签署下废除了《东京湾决议》，并要求撤回美军，尽管战争还将持续多年。
1973年，国会议员通过了《战争权力决议案》，旨在“履行美国宪法制定者的意图，并确保国会和总统的集体判断将适用于将美国武装部队投入敌对行动”。
该法案要求总统在向国会报告新的军事行动后60天内撤回美军，除非国会宣战或授权使用武力。根据《战争权力法案》，总统可以将军事行动再延长30天。
特朗普表示，对伊朗的行动可能在五周内结束，这完全在60天的期限内。但这是迄今为止在没有国会授权使用武力的情况下进行的最广泛的军事行动。
“反恐战争”时期没有宣战
自9/11恐怖袭击以来，针对军事行动的国会磋商越来越少。9/11后用于打击恐怖主义的《使用武力授权法案》（AUMF）措辞极为宽泛，以至于两党总统都将其用于全球军事行动。
在一个值得注意的例子中，国会拒绝了奥巴马总统提出的三年军事行动授权请求。当时政府已经在对叙利亚的“伊斯兰国”进行轰炸。
但正如CNN的杰里米·赫布报道的那样，共和党人对《AUMF》持反对态度，称他们反对限制总司令（无论是奥巴马还是未来的美国总统）的军事选择。
“我们没有理由给他比现在更少的权力。这正是他所要求的。”当时的众议院议长约翰·博纳曾表示。
众议院议长约翰·博纳在奥巴马总统于2013年9月3日在白宫内阁室会见国会议员时在场。
Dennis Brack/Pool/Getty Images
特朗普的盟友认为他不需要请求任何许可
现在，众议院和参议院的共和党多数派似乎不太可能试图控制特朗普。任何关于使用军事力量的投票都将是党派性的，这与前几代人的宣战不同。
阿拉巴马州共和党议员汤米·图伯维尔在接受NewsNation采访时，毫不犹豫地称这场冲突为战争，他表示可以理解需要派遣地面部队。
“这不是你们民主党人的战争，”图伯维尔说，“这是特朗普总统的战争，他不会为了政治正确而行动。他首先是为了保护美国人，然后是我们的盟友和世界各地的人民。”
然而，当被CNN的马努·拉朱问及缺乏国会授权时，图伯维尔的表述却大相径庭。
“我不会称这是一场战争，而更愿意称之为一场应该非常短暂且顺利的冲突，如果你可以这么说的话。”
拉朱多次询问共和党人这场冲突是否是战争。
“我们现在没有处于战争状态，”众议院议长迈克·约翰逊表示，将这些行动描述为防御性的，“我们正处于一个非常具体、明确的使命和行动的第四天。”
众议院议长迈克·约翰逊与众议员汤姆·科尔和里克·克劳福德在2026年3月2日于美国国会大厦向记者讲话。
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
2026年3月2日，在纽约，人们从特朗普大厦前走过，抗议对伊朗的战争。
Adam Gray/Getty Images
参议院限制特朗普的投票可能失败
白宫希望议员们反对由肯塔基州共和党议员兰德·保罗和弗吉尼亚州民主党议员蒂姆·凯恩推动的参议院决议，该决议将禁止特朗普在伊朗采取进一步军事行动，除非国会批准。
凯恩周三告诉CNN的帕梅拉·布朗，支持特朗普行动的两党议员应该简单地投票授权使用武力。
“不要躲在桌子底下，让总统自己去做，”他说，“因为如果你们这样做，你们就为未来两党的总统随意发动战争打开了大门。”
他认为，对委内瑞拉进行的类似投票促使政府改变了策略。
Why doesn’t Congress declare war anymore?
Updated Mar 4, 2026, 6:20 PM ET | Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf
A person stands on the roof of a building looking at a plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital Tehran, on March 3, 2026.
Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
It is obviously “war” when two countries attack a third, kill its leader and try to destroy its military, as the US and Israel have done in Iran.
But in the weird way modern American leaders dance around the US Constitution, names get complicated.
The Trump administration does want to call the Pentagon the Department of War, a nod to the era of world wars, when, he and Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth say, the US military was more used to winning.
But they do not want to formally ask Congress to declare war on Iran, as the text of the Constitution requires and as Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt did after years of internal debate and direct attacks on Americans.
And lawmakers, rather than exert their own authority, are set to beat back efforts in the Senate Wednesday and the House on Thursday to require a debate and vote to authorize Trump’s war.
In the World Wars, the US made a declaration
Roosevelt’s “date which will live in infamy” speech, given less than 24 hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was him formally asking Congress to declare war.
“I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire,” Roosevelt said. Congress complied.
Woodrow Wilson asked for a declaration of war in a speech to Congress in 1917. After years of trying to maintain a sort of neutrality, Wilson said war was unavoidable after interception of the Zimmerman telegram, an intercepted encrypted communication in which Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico against the US.
Now, presidents just act
Trump apprised Congress of his war on Iran with a two-page document required by a 1973 law. It announced “military action” in the interest of “collective self-defense,” although this time it was the US launching a sneak attack.
That term, “collective self-defense,” is important because it appears in Article 51 of the UN Charter as an exception to the need for the UN Security Council to authorize war.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressing Congress on December 8, 1941.
Fotosearch/Archive Photos/Getty Images
President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol on February 24, 2026.
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No detailed explanation was given
Trump had an opportunity just last week during his State of the Union address to make a more complete argument for war, but he barely mentioned Iran in the speech. He did, however, take time to acknowledge the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, via the 1776 Declaration of Independence, which functioned as a sort of declaration of war on Great Britain.
Wars in all but name
So the Iran conflict, which is clearly a war, will not technically be called a war by the US government. It’s not unlike the fact that the “Department of War” is the “secondary” title of what is still technically called the Department of Defense, the name Congress gave it.
There have been 11 declared wars in US history, and none since World War II, although the US has been involved in bloody wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places in the years since.
When presidents stopped asking permission
President Harry Truman did not ask permission to engage in the large-scale Korean War, which his administration called an “international police action.” Congress did not balk, and in fact extended the military draft and appropriated money for the undeclared war.
It was after Vietnam, another undeclared war, that Congress tried to reassert itself.
President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress to authorize the use of force in Vietnam in 1964 after attacks on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Much later, it was determined those attacks did not occur as the military claimed. Without that knowledge, only two senators opposed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The US became mired in Vietnam.
President Lyndon Johnson signing the Tonkin resolution on October 8, 1964.
MPI/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Congress tried to claw back some power after Vietnam
In 1971, Congress repealed, with President Richard Nixon’s signature, the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and demanded the withdrawal of US forces, although the war would continue for years.
In 1973, lawmakers passed the War Powers Resolution “to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and ensure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities.”
It requires the president remove US forces within 60 days of reporting a new military action to Congress unless Congress declares war or authorizes the use of force. The president can extend the use of the military once for 30 days under the War Powers Act.
Trump has said the Iran operation could be concluded within five weeks, which is well within that 60-day threshold. But this is by far the most extensive military operation undertaken without a use of force authorization by Congress.
The ‘war on terror’ era did not include a declaration of war
In the years since the 9/11 terror attacks, there has been less and less consultation with Congress over military actions. The authorization for the use of force (AUMF) to combat terrorism after 9/11 is written so broadly that presidents from both parties have used it for military operations around the world.
In one notable instance, Congress declined to authorize President Barack Obama’s request for the use of military force for three years. The administration was already conducting bombing operations against ISIS in Syria.
But as CNN’s Jeremy Herb has reported, Republicans balked at an AUMF, saying that they were opposed to limiting the military options of the commander in chief, for Obama or any future US president.
“There’s no reason for us to give him less authority than what he has today. Which is what he’s asking for,” then-House Speaker John Boehner said at the time.
House Speaker John Boehner looks on as President Barack Obama meets with members of Congress in the cabinet room of the White House on September 3, 2013 in Washington, DC.
Dennis Brack/Pool/Getty Images
Trump’s allies don’t think he needs to ask for anything
Now, Republican majorities in the House and Senate seem unlikely to try to assert any control over Trump. And any vote over the use of military force will be partisan, unlike those declarations of war from earlier generations.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama Republican, had no problem calling the conflict a war when he appeared on NewsNation and said he could understand the need to introduce ground troops.
“This is not your Democrat war,” Tuberville said. “This is President Trump’s war and he’s not going in to be politically correct. He’s going in to protect first of all Americans first and then our allies and people around the world.”
Asked later by CNN’s Manu Raju about the lack of congressional authorization, however, Tuberville phrased things very differently.
“I wouldn’t call this a war as much as I’d call it a conflict that should be very short and sweet, if you can put it that way.”
Raju asked multiple Republicans if the conflict was a war.
“We’re not at war right now,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said, describing the actions as defensive. “We’re four days into a very specific clear mission and operation.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, joined by Rep. Tom Cole and Rep. Rick Crawford, speaks to reporters at the US Capitol on March 2, 2026.
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People march past Trump Tower during a protest against the war in Iran on March 2, 2026, in New York.
Adam Gray/Getty Images
Senate vote to rein in Trump likely to fail
The White House will want lawmakers to oppose a Senate resolution pushed by Sens. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, and Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, that would bar Trump from taking further military action in Iran unless Congress gives its blessing.
Kaine told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Wednesday that the lawmakers in both parties who support Trump’s action should simply vote to authorize the use of force.
“Don’t hide under your desk and just let the president do it on his own,” he said. “Because if you do, you’re opening the door for presidents of either party into the future just to wage war willy-nilly.”
He argued that a similar vote on Venezuela got the administration to change its approach.