Pakistan, June 25 -- The United States Senate's vote to restrain President Donald Trump's authority to continue military action against Iran is unlikely, by itself, to end a war or settle a peace. That is not where its significance lies. The 50-48 vote is important because it has exposed what the White House would rather bury beneath the language of victory: the Iran war may have entered a diplomatic pause, but its constitutional, military and regional consequences remain unsettled.

The resolution is being dismissed by the White House as symbolic. In a narrow procedural sense, that may be true. War powers battles in Washington are rarely clean contests between law and politics. Presidents have long stretched military authority; Congress ...