Morgan Lueck, a native of Sumner who now lives in China, Maine, served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps. He holds a Master of Science degree in counterterrorism and homeland security from American University.

As I reflect on this past Veterans Day, I am reminded of what military service demands and of what national decisions about war truly cost. It is about remembering the profound weight of what is asked when a nation chooses conflict.

The burden is not theoretical; it is carried by service members, their families and their communities for generations. Because of this, those we elect have a solemn obligation to exercise judgment before committing Americans to war.

That obligation is not being met.

The recent U.S. maritime and aerial operations have included lethal strikes that United Nations experts describe as extrajudicial killings in international waters. The president has stated that he “does not need a declaration of war” to expand these operations.

The deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to the Caribbean signals an unjustified escalation, without clear objectives, legal grounding or an exit strategy. Senior lawmakers report they have not been given the required legal basis for these operations. 

Maine has a senator who chose to ignore that history.

Sen. Susan Collins serves on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Her duty is to oversee covert military activity and ensure compliance with U.S. law. That role is not symbolic. It is the constitutional safeguard intended to prevent undeclared war.

Twice now, the Senate has considered bipartisan measures to require congressional authorization for further U.S. strikes in Venezuela. Twice Sen. Susan Collins has voted to block those measures. Most recently, the measure failed 51–49, and hers was the decisive vote. 

Her vote preserved the administration’s ability to conduct lethal operations without congressional approval. And it confirms what Mainers who serve in uniform have long known: her self-styled reputation for moderation does not extend to upholding constitutional checks on war power. 

This was not an isolated misjudgment. It was the continuation of a pattern.

Collins has built her reputation on careful deliberation. This was careless. It is an abdication of the oversight she is uniquely positioned to exercise and was entrusted with by her constituents. Collins did not defend constitutional war powers or demand transparency on their behalf. She chose the path of least resistance and opposed the guardrails. She claimed the restrictions were “too broad.” We have seen this pattern from her before.

When she voted to authorize the war in Iraq, she did so under the same framework she invokes now: deference to executive assurances, an avoidance of hard constraints and a disregard for the human cost of what those decisions set in motion.

Maine remembers that cost. We remember it in the names etched into stone on town memorials, in flag-lined funeral routes through our smallest towns, in the quiet corners of our lives where someone’s absence is still felt. The Iraq War reshaped families and communities here at home. The lesson should have been clear: war must not be entered quietly, casually or without clarity. Yet the pattern is repeating. Only the geography has changed.

Those of us who have served are not “anti-intervention.” We are against unexamined intervention. We are against wars entered casually and exited slowly. We are against repeating the pattern that has taken so much from so many for so little strategic return. 

Make no mistake, Nicolás Maduro is a dictator, and Venezuela’s alignment with Russia, China and Iran is strategically concerning. But recognizing a threat is not the same as authorizing a war.

If the United States is to use military force, the administration must explain the rationale, Congress must debate and approve it and the mission must have clear goals and limits, including a plan to end the conflict before it begins.

If Americans are going to be asked to risk their lives, then those we elect to vote on our behalf have a duty to stand up, speak clearly and take responsibility. That duty is not being met. And once again, Sen. Collins is choosing caution over courage, and silence over leadership, at the very moment when bravery and clarity are required.