Tag: perpetual war

Should People Be Free To Deal With the Department of War?

In a February 27 post titled “You Should Have Moral Qualms about Anthropic’s Claims,” Hoover Institution senior fellow and foreign policy scholar Amy Zegart challenged the ethics of a company named Anthropic. What I found refreshing is that a defense contractor’s CEO had a strong enough belief in his ethics that he was willing to forego a lucrative contract. According to Zegart, I should have moral qualms about that. I don’t and I’ll say why.

Anthropic had told the Department of War that it did not want its products used for either autonomous weapons or mass surveillance of Americans. According to Zegart, the Pentagon stated that it did not contemplate such uses. But that wasn’t enough for Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, who stated that he could not “in good conscience” accept the War Department’s assurances. Here’s Brendan Bordelon in a February 26 news item in Politico:

[Secretary of War] Hegseth met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Tuesday to deliver a warning — give the military unfettered access to its Claude AI model by Friday evening or else have the government label it a “risk” to the supply chain. The designation, typically reserved for foreign firms with ties to U.S. adversaries, could ban companies that work with the government from partnering with Anthropic.

Hegseth threatened Anthropic with designating it as a risk to the supply chain. With that label, Anthropic could be forbidden, as noted above, from working with companies that work with the government. Hegseth also, though, threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic to work with the Defense Department. A risk to the supply chain and, at the same, a firm that Hegseth wants to use? Hmmm. Bordelon quotes Dean Ball, whom he identifies as a former AI advisor in the Trump administration, noting the obvious contradiction. Said Ball, “You’re telling everyone else who supplies to the DOD you cannot use Anthropic’s models, while also saying that the DOD must use Anthropic’s models.”

Zegart cites the Politico article but doesn’t mention this contradiction. Instead, she goes after Anthropic and CEO Amodei. She writes:

There is a serious ethical question about whether one company, elected by nobody, with its own normative agenda as well as substantial global investors and customers, should be dictating the conditions of the most essential government role: protecting the lives of Americans.

But she misstates the issue. Anthropic isn’t trying to dictate the conditions of this essential government role. Anthropic is simply stating what its own limits are. If the Pentagon can find another supplier, it is free to do so and, indeed, has already done so. OpenAI has stepped up to take Anthropic’s place.

Moreover, why does Zegart think it’s important that Anthropic is elected by nobody? Does Zegart really think that companies that contemplate working with the Department of War should be elected by somebody.

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US Media Mostly Care for Iranians When They Can Be Used to Justify Bombing

The United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, propelling the entire region into a predictable cataclysm of unprecedented proportions.

This puts paid to the alleged “peacemaking” project of US President Donald Trump, who was supposed to be keeping the country out of international wars rather than actively seeking to expedite the end of the world.

The attacks put an abrupt end to the negotiations underway between the US and Iran—to the delight of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has always viewed as anathema anything remotely resembling diplomacy or the pursuit of peace.

‘Trigger Iran to retaliate’

Three days before the joint strikes, a Politico exclusive (2/25/26) reported that “senior advisers” to Trump “would prefer Israel strike Iran before the United States launches an assault on the country.” As per the report, administration officials were “privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a US strike.”

So much for subsequent US/Israeli attempts to cast the assault as “preemptive” in nature. Indeed, there is nothing at all “preemptive” about forcing Iran to retaliate; this is instead what you would call a deliberate provocation.

Unfortunately for the “senior advisers,” Trump and Netanyahu ultimately opted to pull the trigger simultaneously, thus depriving the US administration of its fabricated casus belli.

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US Embassy in Saudi Arabia hit in suspected Iranian drone attack: reports

The US Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh was damaged in a suspected Iranian drone attack Monday night.

The embassy was hit by two drones, “resulting in a limited fire and minor material damage to the building,” a spokesperson for the Saudi defense ministry wrote on X.

A loud blast was heard, and a small fire was seen at the embassy,  Reuters reported. 

“The U.S. Mission to Saudi Arabia has issued a shelter in place notification for Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran and are limiting non-essential travel to any military installations in the region,” a “security alert” posted by the Riyadh embassy on X read.

“We recommend American citizens in the Kingdom to shelter in place immediately.”

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Deadly Texas bar shooting ‘potentially act of terrorism’, FBI says

Two people were killed and over a dozen injured in a shooting outside a beer garden in Austin, Texas, in an incident the FBI says may be related to terrorism.

Austin police identified the suspect as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne. He was a naturalised American citizen born in Senegal, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News and other US media.

After responding to calls of an active shooter at around 02:00 local time (08:00 GMT) on Sunday near Buford’s bar in the southern US state’s capital, police said they shot and killed the suspect, bringing the death toll to three.

Police have not offered a motive for the shooter. Of the survivors, 14 were taken to hospital, three in a critical condition.

Two sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News that the gunman was wearing a sweatshirt with the words “Property of Allah”.

CBS was also told by an official with knowledge of the investigation that officers who searched the gunman’s home found an Iranian flag and pictures of Iranian leaders. The attack came on the weekend that the US and its ally Israel launched multiple strikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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Top Hezbollah Political Chief Muhammad Ra’ad Assassinated in Beirut — Major Blow to Iran’s Terror Proxy Network in Lebanon

Top Hezbollah political leader Muhammad Ra’ad, head of the group’s parliamentary faction and one of Iran’s most prominent proxies in Lebanese politics, has reportedly been assassinated in Beirut.

According to the Israeli war room, Ra’ad, who led the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc in Lebanon’s Parliament since 2000 and was a key figure rejecting disarmament and advocating for Hezbollah’s armed domination, was killed in precision strikes early Monday.

According to MTV Lebanon (Murr Television), a leading independent Lebanese television station:

“Event”: Assassination of MP Muhammad Raad in an Israeli airstrike

According to Al-Hadath, a Saudi Arabian state-owned, Arabic-language satellite news channel:

Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath sources reported on Monday morning that the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, was killed in the Israeli raids. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported an initial toll of 31 dead and 149 wounded from the Israeli raids on Lebanon.

This comes as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun asserted that launching rockets at Israel harms efforts to spare Lebanon from regional conflict, while our correspondents reported the closure of all schools and educational institutions in Lebanon by a decision of the Ministry of Education.

Aoun stated in a statement that “the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory at dawn today targets all the efforts and endeavors made by the Lebanese state to keep Lebanon away from the dangerous military confrontations taking place in the region.”

Hezbollah had previously claimed responsibility for missile and drone attacks on Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

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Britain, France and Germany Say They Could Join Attacks on Iran Through ‘Necessary and Proportionate Defensive Action’

Britain, France and Germany have said they may be willing to join U.S. military action in Iran.

In a joint statement on Sunday, the three countries pledged to protect their interests and those of their Gulf allies, stating the possible need “defensive action” against Iran if required.

“E3 leaders are appalled by the indiscriminate and disproportionate missile attacks launched by Iran against countries in the region, including those who were not involved in initial US and Israeli military operations,” they wrote.

The statement continued:

Iran’s reckless attacks have targeted our close allies and are threatening our service personnel and our civilians across the region.We call on Iran to stop these reckless attacks immediately.

We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source.

We have agreed to work together with the US and allies in the region on this matter.

France has already deployed its Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier from the Baltic Sea to the eastern Mediterranean in anticipation of joining the operation.

The joint statement came as the U.S. and Israel continued to pound targets across Iran on Sunday, with U.S. B-2 stealth bombers striking ballistic missile facilities using 2,000-pound bombs.

President Trump announced on social media that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and that Iran’s naval headquarters had been “largely destroyed.”

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U.S. Has Struck Over a Thousand Targets in Iran

United States forces have now struck over a thousand targets in Iran, with Israeli forces hitting a thousand more, as Operation Epic Fury continues its devastating takedown of the current regime in Iran.

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, U.S. and Israeli forces began the strikes that have now eliminated numerous Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Chief Mohammad Pakpour. Besides high-profile targets like Khamenei’s residence, there were numerous other terrorist/military targets around Iran.

U.S. Central Command has been bombarding the Iranian regime, with three casualties on the U.S. side and many, many more on the Iranian side. Multiple Israeli and American officials have urged the Persian people to rise up and take back their country, as has exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper lauded his troops, saying: “The President ordered bold action, and our brave Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Guardians, and Coast Guardsmen are answering the call.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, March 1:

Israel and the U.S. have struck 2,000 targets since the start of their joint military campaign in Iran on Saturday morning, according to two people briefed on the operation. The Israeli military said it has fired thousands of munitions and flown more than 700 sorties in Iran since Saturday morning.

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Congress, Do Your Job and End This Illegal War of Aggression by the US and Israel

Once again, the United States and Israel are illegally attacking Iran, as they did last June. It is already a regional war, which will take a horrible toll on ordinary people in many countries, with reports a girls’ school was bombed, killing at least fifty people.

Unlike the limited strikes in last June’s 12-day war, this is aimed not just at Iran’s nuclear or military facilities, but at regime change in Iran, as President Trump declared, and government targets in Tehran have been hit, with Israel claiming Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. Predictably, Iran is firing back at Israel and at US military bases in the region.

Just yesterday, the Foreign Minister of Oman, who has been mediating negotiations between the US and Iran, stated prospects were good for a possible agreement. However, according to an Israeli official, the talks were apparently a treacherous ruse, as the US and Israel had planned coordinated attacks on Iran for months.

This crisis lies at the feet of President Trump, who abrogated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in his first term. That multilateral agreement had effectively capped Iran’s nuclear program well short of acquiring The Bomb. Now, once again, two nuclear-weapon states are bombing a non-nuclear-weapon state. Meanwhile, Trump has preposterously called for Iranians to overthrow their government.

The timing of this attack, while perhaps planned for months, came as momentum was building in just the last few days for Congressional War Powers Resolution votes in both the House and the Senate. Democratic leadership in both Houses of Congress had coalesced behind the resolutions, Senate Joint Resolution 104, sponsored by US Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY), with twelve other co-sponsors, and House Concurrent Resolution 38, sponsored by US Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), with over 80 co-sponsors. That resolution may be voted on as soon as Monday, according to Khanna.

Senator Kaine issued a statement asking, “Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East?”and “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 in his first term?,” while calling the war a colossal mistake and “a dangerous, unnecessary and idiotic action.”

US Representative Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, stated, “Everything I have heard from the Administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame,” and “It does not appear Donald Trump has learned the lessons of history.”

Congress must assert its Constitutional authority over matters of war and peace against an out-of-control, rogue president and executive branch, and vote in favor of the Iran War Powers Resolutions. Congress should also impeach, convict, and remove the president from office for this illegal act, as politically unlikely as that appears now.

Anti-war protest demonstrations are already being held this weekend in many cities, including Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Princeton, Norwalk, Greenbelt, Canandaigua and others, reflecting not only the illegality of this war but also its unpopularity, as seventy percent of Americans oppose war with Iran, according to a recent poll. The world urgently needs more diplomacy, not more war.

While this may prove impractical as the war has already begun, and may metastasize in unpredictable ways, we should recall the recent Don’t Give Up the Ship video by six US Senators and Representatives, all veterans of the military or intelligence services, reminding members of those services of not only their right, but their obligation, to refuse to obey illegal orders. I don’t know if this illegal attack on Iran was what they had in mind, but it certainly applies.

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Israel Launches Wave of Airstrikes Across Lebanon After Hezbollah Fires Rockets Into Israeli Territory

The Middle East conflict dramatically escalated early Monday morning after the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel, prompting an immediate and forceful military response from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets and drones from southern Lebanon toward Israeli territory, triggering air raid sirens. The IDF reported that at least one rocket was intercepted while others landed in open areas, with no injuries initially reported.

“Following alerts that were activated in several areas in the north of the country, the Air Force intercepted a launch that crossed from Lebanon; individual launches fell according to policy. No injuries or damage were reported,” the Israeli Air Force announced.

Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that it targeted an Israeli missile defense site near Haifa using “advanced rockets and a swarm of drones.”

In response, Israeli military leadership warned the terror group would “pay a heavy price” for targeting Israeli civilians, as IDF Northern Command mobilized forces along the Lebanon border and prepared for what Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir described as:

“Several days of fighting… in waves.”

Minister of Defense of Israel, Israel Katz, wrote on X:

“The terrorist organization Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for the shooting towards Israel, and Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, who decided on the shooting under pressure from Iran – he is now a marked target for elimination.

Whoever follows in the path of Khamenei will soon find himself with him in the depths of hell along with all the thwarted elements of the axis of evil.

We will not return to the shooting rules of before October 7th, and we will defend the residents of the north and all citizens of the State of Israel with full force.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to act with force against Hezbollah, while continuing to carry out the primary objective: crushing and defeating the Iranian terrorist regime and thwarting its capabilities, in Operation Roar of the Lion – to remove the threats over the State of Israel and enable the citizens of Iran to rise up against it and overthrow it.”

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No Mandate, No Peace: America’s War of Choice Against Iran

Early Saturday, the United States joined Israel in launching a major strike on Iran, with President Donald Trump announcing that “major combat operations” were underway. The first thing Americans should notice is not the fireworks on cable news, but the emptiness where a legal and democratic mandate ought to be. This attack was not authorized by the United Nations Security Council, and it was not authorized by Congress. It was sold to the public after the fact, as bombs were already falling.

In his analysis for The Guardian, Julian Borger reported that Trump’s own words point to something far bigger than a limited punitive strike. The president warned Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to surrender or be killed, vowed to smash Iran’s armed forces, and openly invited Iran’s ethnic minorities to rise up and bring the government down. That is not a narrow mission. That is regime change, declared in prime time.

Regime change is not self-defense. Under the United Nations Charter, the use of force is broadly prohibited, and the main exception is the inherent right of self-defense “if an armed attack occurs,” as spelled out in Article 51. If Washington wants to claim that exception, it has to show an actual armed attack or a truly imminent one. “Iran is bad” is not a legal argument; it is a bumper sticker. Yet the public case from the White House has leaned heavily on sweeping characterizations and contested claims about Iran’s capabilities rather than a concrete, imminent threat, as even Reuters noted in its review of Trump’s assertions.

The domestic legal picture is just as bleak. The Constitution gives Congress – not the president—the power “to declare War.” You can read that authority in Article I, Section 8. Modern presidents have tried to stretch their commander-in-chief role into a blank check, but the point of the system was to make war hard to start. After Vietnam, Congress tried to claw back some of that authority through the War Powers Resolution, which requires consultation “in every possible instance” and rapid reporting once hostilities begin. Whatever one thinks of the War Powers Resolution’s enforcement, the spirit is clear: the president is not supposed to take the country into war first and explain later.

What makes this moment even more alarming is the timing. According to Borger, the strikes were launched while diplomatic efforts were still underway to limit Iran’s uranium enrichment, with talks continuing just days before the bombs. That pattern – negotiations on one track, military escalation on the other – turns diplomacy into theater. It suggests the “deal” was never meant to be a deal at all, but an ultimatum backed by a “beautiful armada” assembled in the region.

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