The exact opposite of America First

Days ago, the Trump administration, in coordination with Israel, conducted military strikes on Iran, which resulted in the deaths of several senior Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Khamenei, and six U.S. servicemembers.

Administration officials cited at first an "imminent threat to the United States" and framed these strikes as a preemptive measure.

In the days since, that story has begun to unravel.

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio was questioned about the justification for putting troops in harm's way and dragging the United States into yet another ill-conceived and poorly defined conflict in the Middle East, he gave a truly mind-boggling answer:

"I've been asked: why now? One reason why is that it was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone, the United States or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond and respond against the United States.

If we stood and waited for that attack to come first, before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties.

We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces."

When I heard that, I was stunned. There was no imminent threat to our country. Instead, Netanyahu was about to attack Iran, putting U.S. troops at risk of retaliation. Instead of working to defuse the conflict and talk our ally down from the ledge, Trump was complicit. He went along with it all, starting a new, possible forever war that nobody voted for.

Donald Trump ran for President, promising to put "America First". Starting a new reckless, unprovoked, and illegal war is the exact opposite of America First.

We must learn from the mistakes of the 2000s and 2010s. Congress needs to assert its constitutional authority and pass a War Powers Resolution to prevent further conflict.

No more American deaths, no more misguided military adventurism, no more endless war.

More soon,

Jim