March 6 marked the 7th day in the undeclared war between the United States, Israel, and Iran; there has been an ongoing U.S. and Israeli military campaign in Iran, and Iran has responded in turn with retaliatory strikes across the region. According to Al Jazeera, more than 1,230 people have been killed because of the conflict. However, the question remains as to why the U.S. is involved in this conflict and how it has gotten to this point.
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the U.S.-Israeli strike on Tehran on Saturday. Despite Trump’s intention to play a direct role in deciding Iran’s next leader, Khamenei’s son, the next in the line of succession, Mojtaba Khamenei has assumed his role as Supreme Leader.
While it is within the powers of the president to use the military operations without a formal declaration of war, Trump said within his video announcement on February 28 that the US-Israeli attacks were “major combat operations”.
On Tuesday, March 3, Trump told congress that Iran had been “untenable”, meaning that the threat from Iran was unable to be maintained, regardless of any efforts to find a diplomatic ending to the conflict. The Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi asserted that Washington cannot be trusted: “no reason why we should negotiate with the US”. This walls off any chance there might have been for a peaceful resolution.
Trump alleged that Iran’s nuclear program was developing long range missiles that could harm U.S. troops overseas, Europe and even “soon reach the American homeland”. On February 28, Trump went on social media to claim Tehran, the capital of Iran, of waging “unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States.” He also added points about the violent takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979, and Iran’s bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 as examples of why this conflict is needed. He says that this was the “last best chance” to take out the nuclear threat posed by Iran.
On March 1 Republican Senator Tom Cotton told CBS “The president has no plan for any kind of large-scale ground force inside of Iran,” and this holds true as most of the large-scale operations seem to be from the sky. As of March 6, US Central Command has hit approximately 200 targets in the past 72 hours, with ballistic missile launchers, naval vessels and more. As of now the Israeli military seems to be the driving force of the war with backing from the US, they claim they have “near-complete air superiority”, with 2,500 strikes destroying 80% of Iran’s air defence systems.
The conflict remains ongoing, with escalation from both sides of the “war”, as Congress continues to block any official resolutions of war.
