On Thursday, the Senate voted 49 to 50 against a resolution directing the president to end U.S. hostilities with Iran unless Congress authorizes them. Four Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Thom Tillis (R-NC), voted yes. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted no, and another Democrat did not vote. It was the fourteenth Senate consideration of a war powers measure since American and Israeli bombing began on Feb. 28.

Whatever a reader thinks of the war, the vote exposes a question that belongs to neither party. When a conflict passes six months and an estimated $42 billion, who decides whether it continues?