The Trump Administration’s Unjust, Unpopular, and Unconstitutional War Against Iran Marches Onward at the Expense of Americans
As President Donald Trump continues to cover up the Jeffrey Epstein Files, including the most recent Department of Justice (DoJ) attempt to hide 47,000 files over 65,500 pages (allegedly to review for “explicit images or survivor information,” but almost certainly to ensure that the president and his rich buddies are protected from prosecution); the war in Iran marches onward. The American people still have not gotten a clear and concise narrative around the reasons for engaging in the expensive hostilities, and we are worse off for the disaster that has been an operation to supposedly cleanse the world of the evil men running the capital of state-sponsored terror. The timeframe keeps shifting, and American bases are being damaged. The Iranian regime remains in place, despite the elimination of many in the upper echelons of power. So, what benefit has this brought to Americans just trying to live their lives thousands of miles away from the battlefield and without any thought of Iran up until this point?
Initial polls showed that only 27% of Americans supported the Trump administration’s war, while 43% opposed it (29% were unsure), but now, it appears that the numbers have shifted to 44% supporting it and 56% opposing it. While we cannot rely solely on polls, and there is a margin of error and selection bias, we can safely assume that most people do not want to be engaged in another Middle East war, especially one without any clear objective or threat against the people. The cost of this war will hit American taxpayers in one way or another, and oil prices already hit $115 per barrel, which is the highest gas price since 2022 when President Joe Biden was in office supporting Ukraine in Russia’s invasion and spending money that we did not have during the pandemic. Average gas prices rose to $3.45 per gallon nationwide, and they are only expected to keep rising. Yet, the president campaigned on lowering the cost of Americans’ daily lives, but here we are with another promise broken. We will see Trump supporters do a bunch of mental gymnastics to try to defend the higher costs of fuel (like switching to the typical liberal argument of greedy corporations) when they denounced Biden during his polices that led to oil spikes (hypocrites).
Though there are some signs that point toward oil prices stabilizing or falling due to President Trump’s threat that he would break through Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz with “death, fire and fury” and “not allow terrorists to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage,” Iran has stated that it will not allow any more oil to flow through the strait if the American-Israeli attacks continued, and it assured both attackers that they “must consider the possibility that they will be engaged in a long-term war of attrition that will destroy the entire American economy and the world economy” (Iran may also be laying mines to prevent ships from passing). Even with release of crude reserves by the International Energy Agency (400 million barrels, 172 million of which came from the United States) and a temporary reduction in costs, oil prices are back over $100 per barrel. As Iran restarts its attacks against countries in the region and targets oil refineries and hits oil tankers in the strait, we will see what happens to prices. It sounds like battles are about to erupt in this waterway that passes roughly one-fifth of the world’s crude oil (about 15 million barrels per day). This is the doing of President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and there is nobody to blame but them. Oh, and France is prepared to send ten warships to the strait as escorts in case things pop off, while warships from the United Kingdom (UK), Greece, and Italy protect Cyprus, so this war has the potential to become something much bigger than what it currently is.
The other reason that the majority of Americans do not approve of this war is that they are wary of another endless war in the Middle East. We were persuaded into the Iraq War under false pretenses, and we are sick of the government lying to us and pushing propaganda in order to get our troops killed overseas in meaningless conflicts. Initially, we were going to go in and out of Iran within days like was the case with the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, but then, we were told that it would likely take four weeks to complete the mission (whatever that mission even is). Then, it shifted to the war continuing for “as long as it takes,” indicating that it could be months, and now, the president is suggesting that it could be over “pretty quickly.” He then suggested that we may put troops on the ground, or we may not, and he is “nowhere near” deciding that (though MC-130J cargo planes have been seen leaving RAF Mildenhall in the UK, possibly indicating a ground invasion of some sort). He has said that he may need special forces to conduct covert search parties to seize Iran’s uranium stockpiles that somehow were not destroyed last June or within the past few weeks (as Trump has suggested). In other words, we have no idea how long the war will last, and neither does the government.
The Trump administration claims that we are obliterating Iran and that “Just about everything’s been knocked out,” but we are still there and bombing the country. Even members of Congress admitted that there was no plan in Iran, and war hawk specialist, Senator Lindsey Graham, even went as far as to say that “It’s not his [President Trump’s] job” to have a plan. Basically, the Trump administration is winging it as it goes and hoping for the best. That seems like a recipe for disaster and one that we must pay for in blood and dollars. As a sign of failure, the Department of Defense (DoD) was forced to move a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system from South Korea to the Middle East in order to be able to keep up with what is happening in Iran (THAAD is an anti-ballistic missile air defense system), signaling that the United States military may be stretching its forces and equipment too thin and does not have enough weapons in reserves to keep the war going (but we sure can raise taxes via inflationary practices to pay for more weapons through the military-industrial complex).
This gets into the next reason that the war is not popular. American troops are dying for no clearly-stated reason. President Trump said that he knows that more American troops will die in this war but that the end justifies the means (of course, we still do not know what the ends or means are), and the president’s willingness to sacrifice our servicemen for his selfish ambitions (perhaps related to the Epstein Files fiasco) and those of Israel and corporations is absolutely unacceptable. Officially, seven members of the armed forces have been killed in the war (six of them were in Kuwait), but as of March 1, Iran was reporting that there were 560 American troops killed in action. Although it is difficult to believe any numbers coming from the governments of either the United States or Iran, especially given that these death tolls are utilized for propaganda purposes, the actual number is probably somewhere in between.
Regardless of the official casualty reports, it is not a good situation, and these are Americans being forced to die on behalf of a foreign nation (Israel), but it is not just Americans dying. It is estimated that 1,230 Iranians and eleven Israeli civilians have been killed in their respective countries, and two Israeli soldiers and 394 civilians have fallen in Lebanon, where fighting has spread due to Hezbollah’s involvement in bombarding northern Israel (leading to 500,000 people displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon because of Israel’s reciprocal airstrikes). About thirty people have also been killed between Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Syria, and Iraq. Of the Iranians killed, evidence has come out showing that it was indeed a United States missile (not an Israeli one) that hit a girl’s primary school in Minab and killed at least 168 children and staff, and despite the Trump administration’s efforts to pin the blame on Iran, which makes no sense at all, very few people are buying that narrative. No, President Trump, it was you who slaughtered the schoolgirls because of your reckless war.
Besides the bloodshed, the United States base in Manama, Bahrain, which houses the Fifth Fleet headquarters, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait (where I was deployed) have been extensively damaged in the Iranian retaliatory strikes; and Camp Buehring and Camp Arifjan (I was there for an assignment one time), also in Kuwait, have been hit as well. Jebel Ali Port and other sites in and around Dubai, UAE caught fire, as well as the Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia. None of the American military bases were under direct threat of being damaged from the Iranian government (maybe from a few terrorist cells in Iraq) until the war started, so President Trump has put our troops in danger and made Americans less safe. In addition to that, he has put all of the Gulf and Arab states under threat of being destroyed or having their economies wrecked, and this is causing strain in relations, especially given that the Trump and Netanyahu regimes did not give warning to these allies that there was about to be an attack on Iran (the United States and Israel are great allies, right?).
The problem is not just the threat of collapsing the Gulf states’ tourism industry or destroying the oil refineries that these countries rely on for survival in a desert climate, but desalination plants are now possibly being targeted, starting in Bahrain. The process of turning salt water from the ocean into drinking water for civilian populations is a lifeline for many, and if the plants are on the receiving end of Iranian bombing, these countries may be crippled.
Americans also do not want the Trump administration leading us into World War III. In fact, many people voted for the current president because he campaigned on keeping us out of foreign wars and not escalating tensions with Russia. President Joe Biden stopped just short of starting a full-scale and direct conflict with Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, and President Trump was supposed to mend relations (a President Kamala Harris most likely would have led us straight into a hot war with Russia). Yet, he is doing the opposite. Iran is a key ally to Russia, which has supplied the country with technology and missiles, and Iran has assisted Russia in Ukraine by sending over drones. The fact that Russia is not more involved shows how much it fears the power of the United States military.
However, Vladimir Putin’s government has provided intelligence to Iran in order for that country to more easily target American positions, and this is exactly what the United States was doing in Ukraine by targeting Russian positions for the Volodymyr Zelensky regime. It is almost like “what goes around, comes around,” and there are many parallels between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the United States bombing campaign against Iran. To suggest that the United States’ war is just and the Russian one is unjust is absurd, since both are the same concept: find some excuse to bully a weaker nation and call it a special operation instead of a war. This cold war between Russia and the United States (I call it Cold War II) has the potential to turn into a hot one (or worse, nuclear), and Americans do not want that right now (the Boeing E-6B Mercury, or doomsday plane, has been spotted in the Middle East, so does this indicate that some incident may occur?).
Among the mixed messaging in this war, we were told that this is not another Iraq or a regime-change war like what has failed in the past. Guys, this time it is so much different. We are supporting rebel groups in Iran to take back their country, and we will have nothing to do with who becomes the next ruler of Iran. Yet, President Trump has said that the newly-chosen supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei (son of the recently-slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei), is “unacceptable” and that the new leader would need “approval from us” (the new supreme leader was struck by American and Israeli missiles and wounded, indicating that his reign may be short). Wait a minute, so if this is not regime change but you are not allowing the new Iranian leadership to exist, what exactly do you call it? Well, after Trump handpicks the next leader of Iran, he will then overthrow the government of Cuba, which he is currently blockading in the hopes that supplies, particularly oil, cannot get to the island so that the government there will fall (more bullying).
As I have expressed in the past several weeks, Israel has been pushing the United States into this war, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted this when he suggested that Israel was going to attack Iran, with or without the United States, and that he could not let Americans be targeted by Iranian retaliatory strikes. Basically, Netanyahu is running American foreign policy (I have also written about this extensively in past weeks), and he is willing to kill Americans to achieve his agenda of dominating the Middle East, gaining more territory for his nation (“Greater Israel” project?), and staying out prison (he is up on corruption charges). Trump is enabling this reckless behavior, and he will do nothing to limit the power that the Israeli government has over the United States (he seriously tried to convince people that he “forced Israel’s hand,” but that would be one of the most absurd lines of logic I have ever heard). I sure do not want to fight a war on behalf of Israel, do you? As someone who has served the United States in the military, I am offended that our government is so compromised by a foreign nation that our troops must die for a truly evil man: Netanyahu.
Then, there is the constitutional angle of the war. Congress has not permitted the president to initiate a conflict with a new nation, and Article I Section 8 Clause 11 of the Constitution specifically states, “the Congress shall have Power To declare war.” This has been watered down over the years, and our society has been conditioned to believe that the War Powers Resolution, which was put in place to limit the power of the executive branch in waging war, is a blank check for the president to engage in violent action anywhere on the planet and for any purpose that he arbitrarily deems a national security threat. Congress has done nothing to check the executive branch, as it is required to do, but President Trump is a dictator who has sole power to wage war (other presidents have also abused this power).
If you do not want to abide by the Constitution, will you at least listen to George Washington (who also advised us to stay out of entangling alliances, which runs directly contrary to what we have going on with Israel, Europe, South Korea, Taiwan, Qatar, Ukraine, etc.)? He stated, “The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.” We have strayed so far from our founding principles, to the point where we now believe that Article II’s mention of the president being the commander-in-chief trumps Article I’s declaration clause. It is ludicrous, but here we are.
Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.