American people are sick and tired of war
Trump's military blunder will fail in attempt to rescue his unpopular presidency
The leadership of The Labor Party has denounced President Donald Trump’s unlawful and unconstitutional actions in Iran.
A day after the president, unilaterally and without Congressional approval, joined Israel’s war on Iran by dropping more than 30 “bunker-buster” bombs on underground uranium enrichment sites in that country, impromptu protests erupted on the streets of several major U.S. cities.
(Cars travel to and from Iran’s capital, Tehran, a city of 10 million. Two days before the U.S. dropped bombs on nuclear enrichment sites in Iran, President Trump posted warnings on social media that inhabitants of the capital should flee. Photo by Mehrshad Rajabi on Unsplash)
Labor Party leaders said they were disappointed by the muted response by Democrats in Congress, with the exception of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who called the bombing a “disastrous decision”, and Illinois Congressman Sean Casten. Both said unequivocally that Trump’s action provides “grounds for impeachment.”
Not surprisingly, Republican allies of Trump hailed the bombing. In statements reminiscent of the early stage of the 2003 war in Iraq -- when President Bush declared “mission accomplished” eight years and seven months before the actual end of the conflict -- GOP members of Congress on Sunday reiterated Trump and Vance’s claims that the single bombing mission “eliminated” Iran’s ability to become a nuclear threat.
Iran’s president threw cold water on that claim, saying enriched uranium, and the scientists working on his country’s nuclear capabilities, had been removed from the underground labs long before bombs fell Saturday. The U.S. does not yet have boots on the ground in Iran, so there is no way of determining if the Iranian president’s assertion that the bombs did “minimal” damage are accurate.
But the party’s Media secretary, Neel Sawicky, said the involvement of U.S. troops is likely if history is any guide.
“The attack on Iran is a poor retelling of Bush’s ‘War on Terror.’ The American people have lived through this experience and understand that this has nothing to do with ‘terror’ or ‘weapons of mass destruction,’” he said. “Instead, we are once again keeping the gears of the military-industrial War Machine oiled with the blood of patriots.”
The fear, Sawicky said, is that the conflict will escalate and members of the American military will be called into action once again on foreign soil.
“These service members will be abandoned by their government and replaced by the next exploited generation of starry-eyed youth looking for a better life.”
It is important to point out that the lead-up to the U.S. military strike was unlike any in recent memory. Normally, an administration would participate in a public campaign to inform the American people of its plans and attempt to gain popular support.
Trump, on the other hand, shared very little about his plans, offering conflicting and misleading comments about his thought process and the rationale for military action. His social media posts at one moment warned inhabitants of Tehran, a city of 10 million people, to “evacuate immediately (a logistical impossibility),” and then the next day suggesting he didn’t know what he would decide to do, followed by comments to reporters that it could be two weeks before he made a decision. Bombs fell two days later.
Americans may remember that Trump campaigned in both 2020 and 2024 on a vow of “no more wars,” branding both Joe Biden and later Kamala Harris as “hawks” who wanted to start World War III. He made the same claim against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
And as recently as May 24, less than a month ago, Trump gave the commencement address at the Army’s West Point Academy, telling cadets that he would protect them from the “ nation-building crusades” of the past in countries that “wanted nothing to do with us.”
By partnering with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump has plunged America into the very type of war on foreign soil that he had railed against. After taunting his Democrat predecessors for a decade for “nation-building” campaigns that cost American lives, the president said Sunday he supports an effort to help “Make Iran Great Again,” a clear threat of an attempt at regime change.
That statement was a direct contradiction to that of Vice President J.D. Vance on two Sunday morning network news programs that the administration had no interest in regime change. When asked whether the U.S. was at war against Iran, Vance rejected the characterization, saying the attack was against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
And both seemed to mostly ignore or downplay the threats of retaliation by Iran, exemplified by Trump’s decision not to remove federal workers posted in most nations in the region, other than Israel.
It is this impulsive, reckless, unserious, and untethered-from-truth-or-reality mode of governing that makes the events of the past 48 hours so dangerous, and why The Labor Party and its leadership call out the complicity and cowardice of both of America’s main political parties as adding to the threat that now faces everyday Americans.
While Republican governors and members of Congress have spent the last five months relinquishing their powers to an ever-growing consolidation of executive authority in the White House, Democrats have seemingly embraced their minority status, remaining silent or offering up weak push-back and excuses that they are powerless to check Trump’s power grab.
As the work week and vacation season begin, Trump’s actions will have far-reaching effects. After the strike by the U.S., Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, the major shipping lane for crude oil out of the Middle East. That action is expected to cause a 50 percent increase in the price of a gallon of gas in the short-term, and continuing increases depending on how long the closure lasts.
The Labor Party’s leadership is outraged by the president’s failure to consider the effects of his policies on the American people, not just in the aftermath of the ill-conceived strike on Iran, but the cumulative effects of his campaign of racial animus, petty retribution, and attacks on marginalized communities, including Labor.
Although it seems ages ago, it’s only a week since more than 13 million Americans took to the streets on June 14 to proclaim their commitment to opposing the tyranny of a would-be king. On the same day, Trump threw himself a birthday parade complete with a showing of military might.
Perhaps those advising him pointed out that in American history, wartime presidents have all seen an increase in popularity -- at least at the start. No one can say for certain the overwhelming protest against his first five months in office was a factor in Trump’s decision to attack Iran. But that’s exactly the problem.
Trump is not a rational leader. He does not make decisions based on security considerations. He doesn’t take legalities into account. He doesn’t operate in a typical political structure -- today’s allies can be tomorrow’s foes, and vice versa. All of which is to say that no one knows what to expect. Trump’s handling so far of his regime’s first international crisis (100 percent of his own making) is far from reassuring.
It’s been a little more than 50 years since Congress passed the War Powers Resolution that requires a president who commits troops to a military conflict to first get approval from Congress. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lawmakers passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force to give presidents a greater ability to use military action in a more preventative role, for example to prevent a nation from harboring terrorists who threaten the United States or to stop a country from funding terrorism.
The Trump administration claims this weekend’s military strike was meant to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. While plausible on its face, it fails under scrutiny.
In 2019, Trump withdrew from an Obama-era agreement, signed four years earlier, that limited Iran’s nuclear program to peaceful uses and prevented it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Once The U.S. withdrew from the deal, Iran ceased to abide by its constraints, and Trump’s first administration ended with no deal in place. Early in his second term, Israel’s military strikes against the country two days before negotiations were set to resume ended any discussions, and the U.S. struck soon after.
Only weeks before the attack, Trump’s National Intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, testified before Congress that her department saw no evidence that Iran was close to having an operable nuclear weapon, further eroding the administration’s argument that the attack was justified.
Iran is among the world’s leading financiers of terror against the United States. Trump’s tough-guy antics have put the safety of Americans at home in jeopardy. By overplaying his hand and refusing to present a united challenge to Iran through bipartisan, thoughtfully considered action, Trump’s attack has invited the specter of retribution and retaliation. Hours after bombs rained on three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, Iran said it was “reserving all options” as it determines how to respond. The US has thousands of military and federal workers on the ground in the Middle East, and the unnecessary action puts their lives at risk as well.
The Labor Party’s leadership calls on Congressional Republicans as well as Democrats to insist on fulfilling its oversight role in this crucial matter of national security. If they fail to do so, they will be as responsible as the president for what comes next.
(The Labor Party is built by and for working people. We fight for policies that put people over profits. Ours is a grassroots movement fighting for real change. Today’s post was written by an independent journalist who is a member of The Labor Party and its editorial undersecretary. For inquiries, contact Labor Party Media Secretary Neel Sawicky at media@votelabor.org.)