So now we're at war.
I thought president and convicted felon (and don't forget adjudicated rapist) Donald Trump was going to keep us out of any future wars. He's a peacemaker. Wasn't that one of his campaign promises? What, you mean he lied to us? How is that possible?
Sometime yesterday afternoon, Trump ordered an airstrike against the nuclear facilities at three separate locations in the sovereign (albeit terrorist sponsoring) nation of Iran. If I understand this correctly, several 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs were dropped on the underground uranium enrichment plant at Fordo, while 30 Tomahawk missiles launched by the Navy found targets in two other sites.
I don't know how surgical these strikes were. I'm assuming some people have died. It's hard to imagine a 30,000-pound bomb as being surgical.
While the strike may satisfy the insatiable cravings of MAGA (comments like "It's about time," "He's the best president we've ever had," and "I've been waiting for this since 1981" have shown up in social media), there is a sense of constitutional illegality to this.
Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says the president cannot unilaterally declare war. That privilege is the sole responsibility of Congress, which is supposed to serve as a check and balance to presidential overreach. The Founding Fathers foresaw this when they divided the powers between the legislative and executive branches to prevent a rogue president from having unchecked power over military actions. Los Angeleans might know something about that what with Marines and National Guardsmen in their streets in the wake of a civil disturbance that local law enforcement has under control.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 also limits a president's ability to commit troops to military action without Congressional approval. It requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops. It also requires the president to withdraw troops within 60 days unless Congress authorizes deployments.
I'm sure a felon president who insists on wearing MAGA baseball caps at cabinet meetings like some obtuse cartoon character would do this. Not.
As the sun breaks through the morning twilight today, we can only wonder what Iran's response will be. American foreign military bases are clearly now in jeopardy of Iranian retaliation. Heck, I think Americans in our own country are in jeopardy. I wonder if that includes immigrants?
Trump apparently ignored American intelligence sources (putting the words "Trump" and "intelligence" in the same sentence seems like an oxymoron. Or maybe just moronic) insisting that Iran was not close to building a nuclear weapon at all. "I don't believe it," said Trump, disparaging American intelligence collection yet again. That makes yesterday's attack by the U.S. very opportunistic, especially in the wake of Israel's military actions against Iran in the days before.
Some reports state that Iran already moved its fissionable material to other locations prior to the bombing.
Trump promised (Oh, no. Not another promise) us a two-week pause while making a decision whether or not to attack Iran, but he waited less than two days instead. It has the feel that Trump had already made up his mind to bomb Iran in the moment. Like a child opening his Christmas presents early, he couldn't wait. Instead, he's fulfilling Israel Prime Minister Bebe Netanyahu's wildest wet dream, because no other country in the world has bunker bombs.
And, hey. Have any of our allies commented on Trump's actions, or shown any support at all (other than Israel?) Not that I've heard as I write this. If a response from our Allies does come, it certainly won't be considered immediate.
Instead, we're left wondering what the Iranian response will be. You know Iran will not let this go. Could we find pain on American soil? Cyber attacks? Biological attacks. Do you not think Iran has sympathetic proxies and sleeper cells around the world? Is air travel less safe? Expect the cost of gas to soar. Maybe the stock market takes a dive. Did Trump consider any of this in his eagerness to blow up Iran?
In his desperate bid to win a Nobel Peace Prize (you know, because President Obama got one), Trump said he would keep us out of war.
All we know is that we're in an undeclared war waiting for the next foot to fall.
And people die in wars.
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