Well, We're at War
Again
The United States and Israel have launched a joint war effort against Iran, citing that Iran is an "existential threat" and that the war efforts are to stop Iran from having a nuclear program.
...you get the picture.
The attacks began around 2am US Eastern time, along with the release of a pre-recorded video of Trump talking about how we gotta do this because national security. This would be the second time in as many months that I've woken up in the middle of the night, checked my phone, and learned we're actively attacking another nation at the direction of our "no new wars President."
At time of writing, the US and Israel have launched a bombing campaign against Iran, who has in turn retaliated with missile strikes against Israel as well as various US military bases and allies in the region. According to Iranian media, an Israeli strike in Iran hit an elementary school, killing more than 40 civilians.
There have been reports of explosions in Israel as well, though it's harder to get clear information on where US interests are being hit, since most reporting is on the places we're doing the hitting.
Operation Epic Fury
The attacks are dubbed "Operation Epic Fury" by the Department of Defense. This is because our country is being run by children, and they genuinely think that sounds cool.
Operation names can be chosen manually, sure, but often they're just randomly generated with an adjective and a noun because it's not about giving a cool sounding name to go along with your big boy war operation; it's about being able to reference a project without saying "the one where we're gonna kill a lotta people." I only mention this to drive home the point that when you see an "operation" with a somewhat salient name, it's because some chud wanted to pick that name specifically.
And in this case, our actual, appointed head of the DoD went with "Epic Fury."
In 2026.
"An Illegal War"
Opponents of the MAGA movement are calling this another "illegal war" started by the White House, which is a term that does mean something, but sounds absurd to me.
The thing they're signaling their distaste for is that the war was started without filing the proper paperwork first. Not that we're getting involved in another campaign in West Asia.
Democrats are FAR from the anti-war party. A cursory browse of statements from elected officials show a range of reactions from "I support the attacks on Iran" to "I support the attacks on Iran but also they should've asked us first." There is even a real chance that enough Democrats will defect from party lines to tank a measure which would reel in Trump's authority to carry out acts of war, citing that we'd be "abandoning our allies" (meaning Israel).
Bottom line, remember that this is all deeply unpopular. Elected Democrats will do exactly what they always do, which is fall in line with supporting a faraway war. That said, escalation with Iran is deeply unpopular. While that didn't stop Kamala's campaign from cozying up to Israel plenty, maybe they'll remember how refusing to listen to their constituents somehow managed to result in massive election losses. Maybe!
