We are now at war with Iran: Trump launches strikes; objectives not clear

The U.S. and Israel are now at war with Iran, over Iran’s nuclear program, which was supposedly obliterated, per the insistence of Donald Trump, a few months ago by a round of U.S. and Israeli air strikes, but apparently wasn’t.

A fresh attack on Iranian targets, including, this time, political targets, was launched overnight, as the three countries were engaged in peace talks being mediated by Oman, whose foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, said hours before the attacks that a “peace deal is within our reach.”

“There would be zero accumulation, zero stockpiling, and full verification,” Albusaidi said, ticking off the main wants from the U.S. and Israel in the negotiations.

Albusaidi said negotiators “need(ed) a little bit more time” to finalize details, including a key concession from Iran, which had agreed to allow weapons inspections to be conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, with possibly an American contingent involved.

You may remember, the Obama administration had secured a deal, in 2015, in which Iran had agreed to scale back its nuclear program and to allow regular inspections by the IAEA.

Trump withdrew the U.S. from that deal in 2018, calling it “terrible” and “one-sided.”

Here we go again

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U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warns that the U.S.-Israeli attack “risks pulling the United States into another broad conflict in the Middle East.”

“The American people have seen this playbook before – claims of urgency, misrepresented intelligence, and military action that pulls the United States into regime change and prolonged, costly nation-building,” Warner said. “We owe it to our service members, and to every American family, to ensure that we are not repeating the mistakes of the past. The president owes the country clear answers: What is the objective? What is the strategy to prevent escalation? And how does this make Americans safer?”

Warner, here, is referencing the ill-advised unilateral action of the Bush administration to launch wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that cost us trillions of dollars, cut short the lives of 7,000 American soldiers, wounded another 60,000, and, really, you have to ask, what did we gain?

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., struck a similar tone.

“Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East? Is he too mentally incapacitated to realize that we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran that was keeping its nuclear program in check, until he ripped it up during his first term?” Kaine said.

“For months, I have raised hell about the fact that the American people want lower prices, not more war — especially wars that aren’t authorized by Congress, as required by the Constitution, and don’t have a clear objective. These strikes are a colossal mistake, and I pray they do not cost our sons and daughters in uniform and at embassies throughout the region their lives,” Kaine said.

Both Kaine and Warner are demanding that the U.S. Senate take immediate action to assert its constitutional authority over acts of war.

“The Senate should immediately return to session and vote on my War Powers Resolution to block the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against Iran. Every single senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action,” Kaine said.

“By the president’s own words, ‘American heroes may be lost.’ That alone should have demanded the highest level of scrutiny, deliberation, and accountability, yet the president moved forward without seeking congressional authorization,” Warner said. “The Constitution is clear: the decision to take this nation to war rests with Congress, and launching large-scale military operations – particularly in the absence of an imminent threat to the United States – raises serious legal and constitutional concerns.

“Congress must be fully briefed, and the administration must come forward with a clear legal justification, a defined end state, and a plan that avoids dragging the United States into yet another costly and unnecessary war,” Warner said.