Trump Illegally Launches War on Iran
Trump has launched strikes against Iran’s three main nuclear facilities, illegally dragging the United States into a potential war with Iran.
This is a rapidly changing situation, and we should be prepared for things to shift quickly. The Iranian government has previously threatened to retaliate in the event of such strikes - we must be prepared to push back against further authoritarian power grabs should we see attacks on U.S. targets in the region in the coming hours or days.
Talking Points from our friends at Win Without War
This is a reckless, illegal move that puts millions of lives in danger: from American troops to everyday people in Iran and Israel.
This is Donald Trump’s war. Donald Trump made the choice to do this. Just as he chose to walk away from diplomacy with Iran over and over again.
Congress must act now to reassert its war powers and prevent U.S. involvement in a new, unauthorized conflict. The Constitution is clear: Only Congress decides when and whether the United States goes to war. Congress must act immediately and vote on existing resolutions preventing President Trump from unlawfully and unconstitutionally continuing to drag us into a new war in the Middle East.
In the Senate, the key vehicle is Sen. Kaine’s resolution, which Leader Schumer endorsed tonight.
In the House, the key vehicle is Rep. Khanna and Rep. Massie’s resolution, which many in the House are demanding an early return from recess to vote on.
Americans should not be drawn into a deadly and prolonged war on Iran. We all know the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq – wars do not necessarily change regimes, but are guaranteed to destroy lives.
Americans oppose war on Iran. (poll here)
Authoritarians are the only winners in war. Trump will use this war as a distraction from his unpopular domestic agenda and an excuse to seize more power. Everyday people, across the Middle East and here at home would suffer. Stopping MAGA’s authoritarian agenda requires opposing it on every front: foreign and domestic.
Diplomacy is the only avenue to stopping the Iranian government’s nuclear program; bombing simply incentivizes sprinting toward a nuclear weapon. Experts agree that U.S. and Israeli bombing won’t be enough to end the prospect of a nuclear weapon in Iran. Instead, these strikes undermine nuclear diplomacy with Iran and around the world.
What we know so far:
U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities
On June 21, the U.S. military struck Iranian nuclear facilities at Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow. President Trump claimed Iran’s enrichment capabilities are “totally obliterated” and that “Fordow is gone,” but there is no way to verify the extent of damage. Israeli government officials said it was unlikely that Fordow was destroyed, and Iranian government officials claimed Fordow did not sustain “irreversible damage” and that personnel and highly enriched uranium were evacuated from all three sites earlier this week.
The Iranian Atomic Energy Organization said there was no radioactive contamination from the strikes and no risk to people living in nearby areas.
In parallel speeches Saturday night, Trump and Netanyahu congratulated each other and emphasized U.S.-Israel cooperation on the strikes.
In his speech and a post on Truth Social, Trump threatened Iran with additional strikes if it retaliated.
Iranian government response
An Iranian state broadcaster announced that every American in the region is now a target. Before Trump’s strikes, Iranian officials had threatened that Iran would attack U.S. forces in the region and Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility if the United States struck Iran’s nuclear program.
Yemen’s Houthis, who are supplied and sometimes directed by Iran, have previously pledged to attack U.S. forces in response to any U.S. attack on Iran and announced “Washington must bear the consequences” following the strikes.
What is the Biggest Takeaway?
The biggest takeaway, in my opinion, is not that the U.S. destroyed Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons.
Tulsi Gabbard reported to Trump what was and is the collective assessment of our and other intelligence agencies and communities - that Iran was not even close to developing a nuclear weapon, as opposed to nuclear energy for their domestic use.
The biggest takeaway, in my opinion, is not how brilliant our Air Force and other armed services were in effecting this attack upon Iran, given that the Israeli's had achieved total control of the skies, knocked out a good deal of Iran's defensive capabilities and the leadership of their armed forces, and practically reduced Iran to total submission.
What Israel didn't have though, which the U.S. does have, is a bunker-busting bomb and the capability to accurately deliver it.
So this is where Donald Trump comes in.
Let's put this all in context. At the time that Israel was wiping out Iran's defenses and military leadership, Trump was hosting what he expected to be the military parade to end all military parades, in which hardly anyone showed up for this and his birthday celebration and which turned into a humiliating disaster for which Trump was openly ridiculed around the world, including during his presence at the G7 conference in Canada, which he suddenly left.
So in the midst of Israel's defeat of Iran's capability to make war, for which Trump demanded that Iran "unconditionally surrender", Trump seized the opportunity to convert the world's opinion of him from being a pathetic clown to being the hero of the free world. And all he had to do, to portray himself as the heroic warrior, was to drop our bunker-busting bombs on the designated sites for which Israel had already cleared the way.
And it worked.
So what IS the big takeaway?
It's not the sleight of hand pulled off by Trump, nor is it our successful attack on what may or may not be Iran's nuclear bomb capability.
In my opinion, the big takeaway is that Donald Trump went solo on us.
In summarily rejecting the collective judgment of our intelligence agencies as communicated by our Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump cavalierly dismissed with a "She's wrong!", and without either a Congressional declaration of war or even a consultation with Congress, Trump unilaterally decided to take the United States of America to war for whatever visceral, instinctive, political or calculating impulse he personally had.
Regardless of the takeaways that people may have as to the military merits of the results of the attack, for me the biggest takeaway is that Donald Trump, totally on his own, decided to take the United States of America to war. The age of knee-jerk warfare has begun.
The power of one person to commit our country to war, which Trump has personally vested in himself, does not bode well for our future.
We need to make it abundantly clear that the citizens of the US do not support war with Iran.