Yet behind this highly publicized confrontation lay a simpler reality: nearly everyone involved knew the vote would not stop the war. They can now return to their districts with a roll-call vote that says, in effect, “I opposed the war.” As long as Congress continues funding the operations, speeches about war powers look more like campaign statements than resistance to the war machine. They will say they stood against the war, even though they knew their resolution could not stop it. A war that Congress refuses to authorize but continues to fund cannot be turned into a war for the defense of America through speeches alone.