Tag: perpetual war

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.”

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

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.”

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

Fourth US Service Member Killed in Action in Iran as Combat Operations Continue

A fourth US service member has died during Operation Epic Fury in Iran as US combat operations continue, US Central Command said on Monday. 

As The Gateway Pundit reported on Sunday, Central Command announced that three service members were killed, and five were “seriously wounded” in retaliatory missile strikes by Iran after US strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.

“Several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions — and are in the process of being returned to duty,” Central Command said.

On Monday, Central Command confirmed an updated death toll, announcing that a fourth troop, “who was seriously wounded during Iran’s initial attacks,” has passed.

“Major combat operations continue, and our response effort is ongoing,” CENTCOM said, noting that the identity of the fallen will be withheld until the family is notified.

TAMPA, Fla. – As of 7:30 am ET, March 2, four U.S. service members have been killed in action. The fourth service member, who was seriously wounded during Iran’s initial attacks, eventually succumbed to their injuries.

Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing.

The identities of the fallen are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification.

Keep reading

Trump’s Contrasting Regime-Change Strategies in Iran and Venezuela

President Donald Trump has made it clear that the new U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran is aimed at nothing less than the overthrow of the country’s clerical regime. Such an ambitious objective should not come as a surprise. Both the powerful Israel lobby and most of the conservative movement in the United States have endorsed the goal of forcible regime change in Tehran since the Islamic revolution overthrew the Shah in 1979. Even a sizable percentage of anti-war liberals have tended to make an exception with respect to policy toward Iran.

The ostensible goal embraced by nearly all of Tehran’s critics has always been to oust the mullahs and bring a secular democratic government to power. In December 2025, prominent conservative organizations, media outlets, and individuals in the United States and Europe voiced emphatic support for anti-regime protests that had erupted in Iranian cities. On January 15, 2026, Trump himself openly threatened to intervene militarily if Iranian security personnel continued to crack down on demonstrators.

Tehran’s adversaries in the United States and other Western countries insist that they want to see a secular, fully democratic government emerge in Iran. Trump’s rhetoric during the initial phases of his new war is consistent with that objective. The administration’s supposed embrace of an ambitious regime-change agenda for democracy in Iran, though, stands in dramatic contrast to Washington’s much more pragmatic conduct in Venezuela. Such a substantive difference raises justifiable uncertainty about the nature and extent of U.S. regime-change goals in Iran, even if the current war proves to be successful militarily.

Although the Trump administration ousted Venezuela’s left-wing dictator Nicolas Maduro in early January 2026, Trump allowed Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, and most other members of the regime to remain in power. That restraint infuriated libertarians and many conservatives in the United States. Most of them wanted to see Washington install in office opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and an outspoken advocate of free markets. Indeed, Machado is the darling of prominent libertarian organizations, especially the Cato Institute.

However, Trump and his policy team seemed perfectly content with continuing an authoritarian socialist regime in Caracas, as long as the leaders were willing to do Washington’s bidding. Policy concessions from Rodriguez’s government with respect to the treatment of the U.S. oil industry and a willingness to display less receptivity to China’s economic penetration of South America came quickly, and the White House appeared to be placated.

The cynical pragmatism of U.S. policy in Venezuela should make U.S. crusaders for Iranian democracy wonder about the sincerity of the Trump administration’s commitment to that value in Iran. There also are major elements in the internal movement opposing the clerical regime who appear to be more than a little unsavory and might be willing to play a role similar to Delcy Rodriguez’s adopted role in her country.

Keep reading

Three US F-15 Fighter Jets Shot Down in Kuwait

Three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets crashed in Kuwait after being struck with friendly fire on Sunday.

In a press release, U.S. CENTCOM stated, “At 11:03 p.m. ET, March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident.”

U.S. CENTCOM added, “The cause of the incident is under investigation.”

Videos of the incident show one of the F-15Es on fire and circling the air as it was free-falling before eventually crashing into the ground.

Per U.S. CENTCOM:

At 11:03 p.m. ET, March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident.

During active combat—that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses.

All six aircrew ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition. Kuwait has acknowledged this incident, and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defense forces and their support in this ongoing operation.

The cause of the incident is under investigation. Additional information will be released as it becomes available.

CNN reported a bystander could be heard in one of the videos of the jet falling, saying, “The American aircraft was shot down by their own missile. We came here thinking it was an Iranian jet. It turned out to be American. Come on, guys, get in the car. Let’s go.

The aircraft’s pilot appeared to eject before impact and safely landed.

Keep reading

SCATHING: CBS Contributor and Target of an Iranian Assassination Plot Masih Alinejad SHREDS Radical Rep. Ilhan Omar for Sympathizing with Terrorist Regime

Masih Alinejad, the courageous Iranian-American journalist and current CBS News contributor who has survived multiple Tehran-backed assassination plots, took to X to expose the staggering hypocrisy of “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).

Alinejad, who recently faced her would-be assassins in a New York federal court, did not hold back.

She issued a “letter from an Iranian woman wounded by the regime,” accusing Omar of maintaining a cozy ambiguity toward the Islamic Republic while the regime systematically slaughters its own people.

The heart of Alinejad’s message centered on the tragic story of Sara Saeidi, a 39-year-old mother of two who was executed by the regime while peacefully protesting.

At the time of her death, she was reportedly wearing a sweatshirt that said “MANHATTAN” with an American flag, which some activists claim symbolized her desire for freedom.

Following her death, Iranian authorities allegedly falsified her death certificate, listing the cause of death as a “collision with agricultural machinery” to mask the shooting.

Alinejad’s critique highlights a growing frustration among Iranian dissidents who see far-left U.S. lawmakers as “anti-war” only when it benefits the mullahs in Tehran. She slammed Omar’s “No War With Iran” campaigns as a shield for the regime’s internal massacre of over 30,000 civilians.

Keep reading

HEROIC: CBS Austin Reporter Caught on Hot Mic Allegedly DEFYING Direct Orders from Higher-Ups to Censor Pro-Trump, Pro-Israel Crowds Following Iran Strikes

A local news reporter in Austin, Texas, was caught on a hot mic allegedly refusing to follow orders from his corporate overlords to bury the truth.

As the world reacts to the decisive joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, the fake news media apparatus is working overtime to suppress the massive wave of public support for President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

But at CBS Austin, the narrative hit a major roadblock in the form of reporter Vinny Martorano.

During the live feed staging, Martorano was seen being handed a phone by a crew member, who appeared to relay a directive from higher-ups regarding how to frame the unfolding demonstration at the Texas Capitol last weekend.

CREW MEMBER: [Hands Martorano a phone, likely showing a directive from the newsroom]

VINNY MARTORANO: What does that mean?

CREW MEMBER: It means they don’t want us to focus on this.

MARTORANO: All right. Well, I am.

Despite the clear orders from his “higher-ups” to deemphasize the pro-American, pro-Israel sentiment, Martorano refused to be a puppet for the radical left’s agenda.

Martorano then delivered a balanced report that acknowledged the reality on the ground.

Martorano told the viewers (presumably in the live shot):

All right. There are a lot of mixed opinions across Austin about the joint attack between the United States and Israel against Iran that happened earlier this morning. Some people like this group behind me are thanking Trump and the United States government for following through with this attack against Iran.

Keep reading