Just Don’t Call It a War
We’re not at war with Iran. We’re merely bombing the country. Iran’s nuclear program has been effectively destroyed. We will keep bombing the country if it doesn’t give up its nuclear program. We seek peace and diplomacy with Iran. We might have to overthrow Iran’s government if it doesn’t do exactly as we say or fights back in any way.
The above is only a slightly flippant summary of the rhetoric President Donald Trump and his subordinates are using to sell the war they launched against Iran over the weekend, which began Saturday evening (early Sunday, Iranian time) with a series of strikes on three of the country’s nuclear sites.
A “very successful attack,” declared Trump in a Truth social post on Saturday, adding that “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”
As Reason‘s Matthew Petti dryly noted over the weekend, “There was peace eight days ago.” That was before Israel, and now the U.S., started bombing Iran.
To hear Vice President J.D. Vance tell it, that peace was never shattered because we’re not even at war. “We are not at war with Iran. We are at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” was the veep’s go-to line in interviews with reporters on Sunday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment at a press conference, saying the weekend’s strikes “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”
It might strike some as absurd to argue that America is not at war with the country it’s bombing, particularly given that our ally Israel is very much striking Iranian troops and Iranian people.
Ridiculous as it sounds, it’s not a new idea.
Recall that the Obama administration argued its 2011 aerial bombardment of Libya didn’t amount to actual hostilities because U.S. troops weren’t put at risk. Therefore, the administration didn’t need congressional approval to continue its non-hostile bombing campaign.
Given that Congress wasn’t consulted about Trump’s weekend strikes on Iran either (more on that in a bit), the administration’s “we’re not at war” insistences allow it to pretend it’s not completely ignoring the Constitution.
Limited forever war. Having started a war with Iran, the Trump administration is now trying to have its yellowcake and bomb it too.
It wants to tell a war-skeptical public that its war aims are limited and have basically already been achieved. It also wants to threaten Iran with limitless death and destruction if it doesn’t effectively just roll over.
This is how Hegseth can say “Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,” while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio can say that “if Iran is committed to becoming a nuclear weapons power, I do think it puts the regime at risk. I think it would be the end of the regime if they tried to do that.”
Trump himself raised the potential for regime change, saying in a Sunday Truth Social post that “if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be Regime change???”
Indeed, while Iran’s nuclear sites have been badly damaged, The New York Times is reporting that initial intelligence assessments show that they remain at least partially intact. Multiple outlets are also
Article from Reason.com
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