The United States and Israel have banded together to launch a multitude of attacks in their ex-ally country, Iran.
A multitude of explosions rang out in Tehran, Iran early Saturday at 9:45 a.m. IRST (Iran Standard Time). The U.S. and Israeli governments had been planning their major attacks on Iran for months, including the specific detail that it must take place at night. After the C.I.A., who had been profiling the late Iranian leader of the last 37 years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, found out he would be in the same compound as other Iranian officials, the plans were immediately changed.
Israeli warplanes took to the air at 6 a.m. local time and only three hours later was when explosions bombarded Tehran, killing Khamenei and other Iranian officials. President Donald J. Trump has stated the bombs will continue until there is “peace throughout the Middle East.”
Why did the U.S. and Israel initiate a series of attacks in Iran? Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz stated that the attacks were a preventative strike to “remove threats against the state of Israel,” with no further explanation as to why the sudden need to take military action occurred. U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio stated that the U.S. was aware of Israeli action, which meant America had to take preventative measures in case of Iranian attacks on American forces.
What are the underlying reasons? President Trump has been alternating between saying that all he wanted to do was strike a nuclear deal with Iran’s government and that he wanted to make it collapse. He has made minor efforts to prove to Americans that war was necessary, the case presented by him and his aids included false claims about the urgency of the threat Iran posed to the U.S. The move toward war grew due to encouragement by Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who pushed to president to strike against Iran’s government; and Trump riding the high of his confidence after the successful capture of Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro.
The forces launched by the United States and Israel have devastated many locations in the Middle East, one strike hit a girls’ elementary school near a naval base in southern Iran, killing more than 160 individuals.
Iranian leaders have promised to avenge their leader and country via broad retaliations, a promise which they kept. Iran fired waves of missiles at Israel, forcing Israeli citizens to crowd into bomb shelters. The retaliating country also targeted Middle Eastern locations that are hosts to U.S. military bases, such as Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United States Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The retaliatory strikes in the United Arab Emirates resulted in damage to the Dubai International Airport (DXB), which led to the immediate turnaround of flights on their way to the region. Additionally, the attacks have extended to non-military locations, strikes now hitting civilian sites and energy facilities.
The Pentagon announced the first six U.S. deaths on Mar. 1. They are confirmed to have passed early Saturday in the initial military operation early Saturday. The six U.S. service members were identified as Capt. Cody A. Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, Spc. Declan J. Coady, Maj. Jeffery O’Brien, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan,
The fight has escalated at a rapid speed, pulling in Cyprus and Lebanon in recent days, with casualties and damage emerging on all sides.
Although the term “war” has been used extensively to describe this fighting between the U.S., Israel, and Iran, war has not been congressionally declared. Republicans on Capitol Hill have been bending over backwards to avoid the term, often calling it a “major combat operation,” a “mission” and “hostilities”
President Trump has the prime user of the term “war,” often having to be corrected by the reporters surrounding him. If Trump continues to call the fight a war, he’ll be acting outside of constitutional boundaries as he will be waging war without congressional say-so.
Trump has also states that he should have a role in electing Iran’s leader, claiming that Mojtaba Khamenei (son of late Ayatollah) would be an “unacceptable” choice.
In order to understand the rationales of this emerging war, one must understand what made Iran, who used to be in close alliance with the United States and Israel, a sworn enemy of the two countries.
Iran was once a key ally when it came to Muslim population and Israel’s security. The Iran-Israel alliance ceased during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. At the time, Ayatollah Khameini’s (Iran’s long-standing leader) regime was relatively new; under the new regime Khameini pushed for a government rebrand of Israel, dubbing it the “Little Satan” and aligned itself against American influence in the Middle East. Tensions grew between the countries as Iran began funding and training anti-Israel groups in Lebanon and Gaza. Those same tensions skyrocketed in the 2000s when word got out about Iran’s nuclear program and led to major cyberattacks and targeted assassinations in Iran.
The United States’s alliance with Iran was similarly broken in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which replaced a U.S.-backed monarchy with the Islamic Republic. Again, when Khameini took power, Iran was transformed into a theocracy and framed the U.S. as the “Great Satan.” Following this, Iranian soldiers stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held the embassy hostage for 444 days, leading to a permanent tear in the American-Iranian alliance.
