More than 1,000 civilians, including children at a girls’ elementary school, have been killed since President Donald Trump launched “major combat operations” in Iran.
By Tevon Blair
Essence
https://www.essence.com/
There’s been one question that American citizens across the country have asked this week – and that is why are we at war with Iran?
According to President Donald Trump, he says the initial unprovoked attacks were to protect American citizens by ‘eliminating imminent threats’ from Iran.
However, based on the Constitution, Congress has the sole authority to declare war, not the president. Actually, Congress has not declared war since World War II in 1941. While there is a small window for U.S. presidents to act swiftly against attacks without congressional approval, there’s been no substantial evidence made public that Iran was targeting the country.
On the early morning of February 28, the President announced that the United States military was beginning “major combat operations” in Iran, characterizing the country’s government as a “radical dictatorship.”
In the first few hours of the attack on Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the middle eastern country’s supreme leader was killed by the United States and Israel’s massive strikes, along with several other Iranian leaders. This comes a month after the Trump administration captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump’s actions have led to millions of Americans overseas caught in the cross fire, leaving at least six U.S. service members dead and more than 1,000 people killed by American and Israeli strikes.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties,” said by Trump during the announcement. “That often happens in war.” Ironically, Trump’s 2024 presidential race convinced voters that “no new wars” would occur. He also made it clear that Vice President Kamala Harris, if elected, was “guaranteed” to begin a war with Iran. The self-declared ‘Peace President’ made the same comments about former President Barack Obama back in 2012.
This week, the War Powers Resolution was presented to U.S. lawmakers to restrict Trump’s ability to continue military action against Iran. The resolution returns power back to Congress after a president abruptly involves American troops in any armed conflict overseas, leaving the decision to lawmakers on further attacks. Both the Republican-controlled House and Senate blocked the resolution now making Congress complicit in authorizing the president to carry out his strikes against Iran.
According to a recent NBC poll, a majority of Americans do not support the Trump administration’s decision to start this war. As the attacks started, Americans were left stranded abroad and visually seeing airstrikes from hotel windows. The State Department issued new advisories urging Americans to reconsider travel to a list of countries, however many were already in the warzone.
Airports across the Middle East were packed with stranded passengers trying to return home to America. These were not just leisure vacations, American citizens were also on work trips that turned into an unplanned frightening experience. Although thousands are still stranded, evacuation missions have started with the first flight through the path of danger landing at Dulles International Airport Thursday afternoon.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Democratic lawmakers wrote, “The lack of clear preparation, planning, and communication to Americans abroad is unacceptable and a violation of the State Department’s basic mission to provide consular assistance and the protection of U.S. citizens overseas.”
The State Department has announced that additional charter flights and ground transportation are underway to support American citizens during this conflict, as Iran responds to the deadly attacks.
‘Operation Epic Fury’ is what the attacks are being called by the administration to display America’s strength to “eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime, destroy its ballistic missile arsenal, degrade its proxy terror networks, and cripple its naval forces,” as stated by the White House.
In the first five days of the United States and Israel bombing Iran, the attacks have severely impacted Iranian communities by killing thousands of people. A girls’ elementary school in Iran was directly hit by the strikes, tragically ending the lives of more than 100 children while they were in class.
On Wednesday, videos began to circulate on social media of former Marine Brian McGinnis being dragged out of a Senate hearing, while in uniform, after protesting the Iran War. He interrupted the hearing by stating firmly, “Israel is the reason for this war. America does not want to fight for Israel.” In the video you could hear his arm snapping from the aggressive interaction with law enforcement.
The war has expanded beyond Iran, involving not just the United States and Israel. Now, several U.S. allies and other surrounding countries are involved in a war that Trump says he has “no time limits” on when the war with Iran would end. Countries involved include the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iran, Kuwait, the United Kingdom and many others.
In response to the attacks, Iran has launched their own strikes, hitting several U.S. Military sites across the Middle East. Satellite images can be seen from a New York Times analysis.
Before Trump commented on ruling out a ground invasion in Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “We are confident that we can confront them, and it will be a big disaster for them.” Later, Trump said a ground invasion would be a “waste of time,” adding that Iran has “lost everything they can lose.”
The Trump-led conflict in Iran has resulted in gas prices to increase for American citizens. In response to the changes Americans are seeing during their daily commutes, Trump tells Reuters that he “doesn’t have concerns about it.” He added that the military operation “is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.”
The current war remains a developing story.
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