"The American people do not want more war in the Middle East. No boots on the ground. No more war."
By Jon Queally • Mar 7, 2026
A report late Friday that US President Donald Trump is more bullish in private about putting American soldiers on the ground in Iran than he has been publicly stirred immediate condemnation among lawmakers opposed to the illegal military attack, now entering its second week of destructive and deadly operations.
“This is madness,” declared Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) in response to NBC Newsreporting, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the conversations, that stated Trump “has privately expressed serious interest in deploying US troops on the ground inside of Iran.”
While the White Housepushed back on the contents of the reporting, Trump himself has said that he does not hold reservations about deploying ground troops if he deems it necessary.
“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” Trump told the New York Post on Monday. “Like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it. I say, ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also reacted to the new reporting.
“ Donald Trump is hellbent on escalating his reckless war and is now considering putting US boots on the ground in Iran,” said Schumer in an online statement. “The American people do not want more war in the Middle East. No boots on the ground. No more war.”
Early morning on Saturday, Trump issued a fresh threat to the people of Iran, declaring in a social media post: “Today Iran will be hit very hard!”
In the same post, the US president falsely claimed that Iran had “surrendered” to neighboring countries in the region following a series of missile attacks over recent days by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps units on select targets in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and others.
What Trump was referring to was a video message issued by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier in the day in which he apologized for the strikes—carried out by IRGC commanders operating independently in the wake of the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli strike earlier this week—and said that no further such attacks would take place “unless those countries launch an attack on us.”
In his remarks, Pezeshkian rejected Trump’s insistence on Friday for an “unconditional surrender” by Iran. “That we surrender unconditionally is a dream that they must take with themselves to the grave,” he said. “What we adhere to are international laws and humanitarian framework.”
Pezeshkian called for diplomacy to bring the war of aggression by the US and Israel to an end. “We aim to work hand‑in‑hand with our dear brothers and neighbors in the region to establish lasting peace and stability, and we hope this goal will be achieved,” he said.
However, if hostilities launched from factions in neighboring countries resumed, Pezeshkian warned, “all military bases and interests of criminal America and the fake Zionist regime on land, at sea, and in the air across the region will be considered primary targets and will come under the powerful and crushing strikes of the mighty armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
In remarks on Thursday, after Trump previously refused to rule out boots on the ground, Iranian Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Abbas Araghch told NBC News that the country’s armed forces are prepared.
“We are waiting for them,” Araghchi said. “Because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them.”
Foreign policy experts warn that Trump has created an untenable situation for himself by demanding the “unconditional surrender” as well as stating that he must personally be involved in the choosing the next leader of Iran—an overt call for regime change in a nation of 90 million people.
“No country surrenders from airpower alone,” said Ryan Costello, policy director for the National Iranian American Council, a Washington DC-based think tank, on Friday. “Trump has created a trap for himself: either he backs down on his unattainable goal to dictate Iran, or he climbs up the escalation ladder, considering even more disastrous steps like boots on the ground.”
"We have totally unserious, completely incompetent people taking us into mindless, deadly war," said Democratic US Sen. Chris Murphy.
By Jake Johnson • Mar 6, 2026
In an interview with TIME magazine published Thursday, US President Donald Trump responded flippantly to a question on whether Americans should be concerned about the possibility of a retaliatory attack on United States soil amid his illegal and intensifying war on Iran.
“I guess,” Trump said when asked about a direct Iranian attack on the US. “We expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”
Democratic lawmakers quickly seized on the president’s comment as further evidence of his callous lack of regard for the potentially catastrophic consequences of the war he launched.
“This is deranged and dangerous,” said US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a retired US Navy officer, wrote on social media that the president “has terrible judgment, and Americans have already died because of it.”
“This is officially TRUMP’S WAR,” Kelly added.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Trump’s remark underscored that “we have totally unserious, completely incompetent people taking us into mindless, deadly war.”
The Trump administration has confirmed the deaths of six American soldiers so far. Earlier this week, a top Iranian security official claimed Iran’s response to the massive US-Israeli bombing campaign—retaliation that has hit American military bases throughout the Middle East—has killed 500 US soldiers.
More than 1,200 Iranians have been killed by US-Israeli strikes so far, including the more than 160 people—mostly young girls—massacred in an attack on an Iranian elementary school that US investigators believe was carried out by American forces.
“Six of our fellow Americans and over a thousand Iranians lie dead. Their families have been shattered. Billions of our tax dollars have been spent. The Middle East has been plunged into war,” Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote Thursday. “And for what?”
The Trump administration has refused to provide a clear objective, justification, or timeline for the war, which is costing US taxpayers roughly $1 billion per day. Politicoreported earlier this week that US Central Command is “asking the Pentagon to send more military intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Florida to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days but likely through September.”
“The longer this war goes on,” Bruce Hoffman of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote Thursday, “the greater the incentive for Iran to apply all forms of asymmetric warfare in hopes of coercing Trump to abandon his war aims. Sleeper agents, lone actors inspired and motivated by Iran, cyberattacks on US infrastructure, and physical attacks on critical infrastructure are all possible.”
In response to Trump’s comments to TIME, Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group asked, “Can someone remind me who the heads of the DHS and FBI are at the moment?”
“Surely they will stop any such attack,” Finucane wrote sardonically.
"If the United States is at war, then Pete Hegseth is a war criminal. If the United States is not at war, then Pete Hegseth is a murderer."
By Brad Reed • Mar 5, 2026
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday was condemned for his boasts on Wednesday about sinking an Iranian military ship after allegations emerged that it was “defenseless” at the time it was torpedoed in international waters by a US submarine.
Military.comreported Thursday that the Iranian ship had been departing from a biennial multinational naval training exercise that it had been invited to participate in by the Indian government.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far remained silent on the US attack on the ship, but other politicians in India delivering sharp condemnations.
According to the Times of India, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi tore into Modi for not speaking up after the US torpedoed a boat that his government had invited into its waters.
“The conflict has reached our backyard, with an Iranian warship sunk in the Indian Ocean,” Gandhi said. “Yet the PM has said nothing. At a moment like this, we need a steady hand at the wheel. Instead, India has a compromised PM who has surrendered our strategic autonomy.”
In a social media post, former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said there was no way that the Iranian ship could have been perceived as any kind of military threat.
“I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition,” he wrote. “It was defenseless... The attack by the US submarine was premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship’s presence in the exercise to which the US navy was invited but withdrew from participation at the last minute, presumably with this operation in mind.”
Drop Site News reporter Ryan Grim noted that, in addition to striking what appears to have been a defenseless boat, the US also didn’t help rescue any of the shipwrecked men who were aboard the vessel.
“The Sri Lanka Navy was left to pull the dead bodies from the water,” Grim commented. “I am hard pressed to think of any other nation throughout history that would do something so cowardly and despicable. We are genuinely in a league of our own, and American media—mostly shrugging off the bombing of a girls school and acting as if carpet bombing Tehran is a normal military tactic—is deeply complicit.”
Author Bruno Maçães also pointed to the decision to leave the shipwrecked crew at sea as an act of historic depravity.
“Really quite extraordinary that the US bombed an Iranian ship and then left the surviving sailors to drown,” Maçães wrote. “There are many many accounts of the Nazis or Imperial Japan saving survivors at sea. I see we have now dropped below that level.”
Mohamad Safa, executive director of PVA Patriotic Vision, an international multilateral organization with special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council, said that the US attack on the Iranian ship constituted either a war crime or straight-up murder.
“What Pete Hegseth ordered the military to do violates international law,” he wrote. “The Iranian ship was near Sri Lanka, in international waters outside the combat zone and on a training exercise. Under the Geneva Conventions, you are obligated to rescue the crew of a ship that you sink during war. Abandoned any survivors and leaving them to drown is illegal and a war crime.”
"Trump's violent, cruel deportation agenda didn't begin with Kristi Noem, and it won't end with her firing," said Rep. Summer Lee, who called for dismantling DHS and prosecuting everyone "violating our rights."
By Jessica Corbett • Mar 5, 2026
Amid mounting calls for the ouster of US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over her department’s deadly immigration operations and detention facilities denounced as concentration camps, President Donald Trump announced Thursday that she will take on a new role and Sen. Markwayne Mullin will replace her.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the Republican senator from Oklahoma will take over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 31, while Noem, “who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida.”
The initiative will seemingly build on Trump’s fatal bombings of boats allegedly trafficking drugs and a new joint operation that’s sending US troops to Ecuador. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the governments attending the summit “have really formed a historic coalition to work together to address criminal narco-terrorist gangs and cartels and counter illegal and mass migration into not only the United States but the Western Hemisphere, which remains a key and top priority of this president.”
After thanking Noem for “her service at ‘Homeland,’” Trump promoted Mullin as “a MAGA Warrior, and former undefeated professional MMA fighter” who “truly gets along well with people, and knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Advance our America First Agenda.”
Trump touted Mullin’s Native American heritage and said he “will work tirelessly to Keep our Border Secure, Stop Migrant Crime, Murderers, and other Criminals from illegally entering our Country, End the Scourge of Illegal Drugs and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”
Mullin’s conduct in Congress has notably included threatening to physically fight Teamsters president Sean O’Brien during a 2023 Senate hearing. His formal nomination to lead DHS will require confirmation by the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans. According toFox News, Noem “will likely be at least temporarily replaced by Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, a Navy veteran and former mayor of Los Alamitos, California, in the line of succession for the agency.”
Trump’s announcement came just hours after the National Reviewreported that Trump “is privately furious” with Noem “for suggesting in her Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on Tuesday that he gave advance approval of a taxpayer-funded $220 million ad campaign contract that was subcontracted to one of her allies.”
During that Senate hearing, Noem faced outraged Democrats and Republicans. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) ripped into her over DHS agents’ killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis—a topic retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) also addressed, noting the infamous passage of Noem’s book in which she describes shooting her family’s dog and goat.
Responding to Trump’s announcement, Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan said, “Good riddance to the racist, lying puppy killer.”
Graham Platner, one of the Democrats running to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in November, similarly said “good riddance” to what he called one of Collins’ “worst confirmation votes ever.”
The progressive oyster farmer and combat veteran also renewed his call to “dismantle” the DHS agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stressing that “the sickness at ICE goes far deeper than one person at the top.”
Progressives currently serving in Congress joined Platner in welcoming Noem’s departure from DHS but also reiterating criticism of the department leading Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
“It’s about time,” declared Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.). “But Trump’s violent, cruel deportation agenda didn’t begin with Kristi Noem, and it won’t end with her firing. We need to abolish ICE, dismantle DHS, and prosecute everyone responsible for violating our rights, bypassing due process, and killing people in our streets.”
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) said that “this is a big win. Kristi Noem was a disaster, and people speaking up got her fired. But Kristi Noem is not the architect of Trump’s dangerous mass deportation policies, and we can’t let up the pressure. Fire Stephen Miller.”
DHS remains partially shut down due to a congressional funding fight. Just a day after grilling Noem on the Fourth Amendment during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Pramila Jayapalsaid “good riddance” to her while also arguing that “Congress still cannot fund DHS until there is real, tangible proof that this will be a meaningful, structural change.”
The SAVE America Act and related bills "aren't about keeping our elections free and fair," warned the ACLU. "They're about politicians setting the stage to interfere with election results they don't like."
By Jessica Corbett • Mar 5, 2026
In a pair of Truth Social posts on Thursday, President Donald Trump urged congressional Republicans to pass the voter suppression bill that is stalled in the US Senate after being advanced by the House of Representatives last month.
“The Republicans MUST DO, with PASSION, and at the expense of everything else, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT—And not the watered down version. This is a Country Defining fight for the Soul of our Nation!” Trump wrote Thursday morning.
In a separate post about an hour later, the president added:
THE SAVE AMERICA ACT! 1. ALL VOTERS MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. (IDENTIFICATION!). 2. ALL VOTERS MUST SHOW PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP IN ORDER TO VOTE. 3. NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS (EXCEPT FOR ILLNESS, DISABILITY, MILITARY, OR TRAVEL!). 4. NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS. 5. NO TRANSGENDER MUTILATION SURGERY FOR CHILDREN, WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN APPROVAL OF THE PARENTS
The posts came just eight months ahead of the midterms that will determine which party controls each chamber of Congress for the rest of the president’s second term—which is also supposed to be his final, under the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, but the 79-year-old with a history of lying about election results and voter fraud has repeatedly teased trying to stay in power.
Trump and other advocates of the SAVE America Act—and its state-level copycats—have claimed that the bill is necessary to prevent immigrants from participating in elections, even though noncitizen voting is already illegal and research has made clear that voter fraud is incredibly rare in the United States.
The House-approved version of the bill, led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), would require states to regularly submit voter rolls to the US Department of Homeland Security, and to obtain proof of citizenship, in person, when registering someone to vote. It would also force voters to present eligible photo identification at the polls.
Critics of the bill have argued that rather than tackling the nonexistent issue of noncitizen voting, the SAVE America Act would disenfranchise eligible voters who don’t have access to proof of citizenship documents—such as people who have lost paperwork, can’t afford replacements, or have changed their names.
The ACLU has a tool to help Americans contact their senator to oppose the SAVE Act, SAVE America Act, and Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act. The automatic message says in part that “these bills aren’t about keeping our elections free and fair. They’re about politicians setting the stage to interfere with election results they don’t like. Please reject these dangerous, anti-voter bills.”
While House Republicans were able to approve the legislation mostly along party lines—the only Democrat who supported it was Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, who notably received a pardon from the president recently—the Senate GOP’s majority is too slim to get most bills past the 60-vote filibuster without some Democratic support.
Trump also renewed his call for passing the legislation in his State of the Union address last month, specifically calling out Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). The following day, the Associated Pressreported that Thune backs the bill, and Republicans were discussing how to send it to the president’s desk.
According to the AP:
Senate Republicans “aren’t unified on an approach,” Thune said on Wednesday after Trump’s speech.
In an effort to get around Democratic opposition, Trump and others have pushed a so-called “talking filibuster,” which would bring the Senate back to the days of the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, when senators talked indefinitely to block legislation. Today, the Senate mostly skips the speeches and votes to end debate, which takes 60 votes in the Senate where Republicans have a 53-47 majority.
Republicans wouldn’t have to change the rules to force a talkathon. They could simply keep the Senate open and make Democrats deliver speeches for days or weeks to delay taking up the legislation. But Thune would still need enough support from his caucus to move forward with that approach, and he said this week that “we aren’t there yet.”
Absent progress in the Senate, several state legislatures are considering similar bills. Citing the Voting Rights Lab tracker, Talking Points Memoreported Tuesday that 15 states have 26 active election bills with proof of citizenship requirements.
“I think what we’re often seeing in these states is that there’s an effort to send political messages that don’t necessarily comport with the reality of election integrity or the needs of election officials,” David Becker, a former US Department of Justice lawyer and executive director and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, told TPM.
“Like the SAVE Act, this would require citizens to regularly work to make up for government deficiencies, digging out and showing their citizenship papers over and over and over again when they’ve already shown them,” Becker said of state-level proposals. “Why are we insisting that citizens have to work for government, rather than government working for us?”
"The second bomb hit," said one paramedic. "Only a small number of those who had taken shelter survived."
By Brett Wilkins • Mar 4, 2026
As the US and Israel continued to wage war on Iran Wednesday, paramedics and victims’ relatives said last weekend’s bombing of an elementary in southern Iran was a so-called “double-tap” airstrike—a common tactic used by US, Israeli, and Russian forces by which attackers bomb a target and then follow up with a second strike meant to kill survivors and first responders.
Iranian officials said that around 175 people—most of them young children—were killed when the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab was hit Saturday by what they said was a US-Israeli attack
“When the first bomb hit the school, one of the teachers and the principal moved a group of students to the prayer hall to protect them,” said one of two Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) paramedics who spoke to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity.
“The principal called the parents and told them to come and pick up their children,” the paramedic added. “But the second bomb hit that area as well. Only a small number of those who had taken shelter survived... Some parents recognized their children only because of the gold bracelets they were wearing.”
The father of a girl killed in the second strike on the facility told Middle East Eye that school officials “asked us to come as quickly as possible and take our daughter home.”
However, when he arrived at the school, “My little girl was completely burned.”
“There was nothing left of her,” he said. “We could only identify her from her school bag, which she was still holding.”
“When I saw her smile after coming home from work, all my pain disappeared,” the father added. “Now I don’t know what to do with this pain. I don’t know how to live with this.”
The mother of a boy slain in the strike toldNBC News that the school also called her and told her to quickly come pick up her child.
“By the time we arrived, the entire school had collapsed on top of the children,” she said. “People were pulling out children’s arms and legs. People were pulling out severed heads.”
On Wednesday, Middle East Eyepublished a partial list containing the names and ages of 51 children—26 boys and 25 girls—one infant, and eight women killed in the school strike.
Thousands of mourners thronged the streets of Minab on Tuesday as funerals were held for the strike’s victims.
It is not known whether the school, which is located near an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps compound, was deliberately targeted.
“All that I know is that we’re investigating that. Of course, we never target civilians,” said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who oversees a military whose 21st century wars have killed more than 400,000 noncombatants, according to the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubiosaid Monday that the Pentagon “would be investigating that, if that was our strike.”
“Clearly, the United States would not deliberately target a school,” Rubio added.
Since the late 20th century, the US has bombed—either deliberately or through inadequate target vetting and identification—schools in countries including Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
If carried out by the US, Saturday’s strike in Minab is likely the deadliest American school bombing since 182 students, staff, and other civilians were massacred in an apparently deliberate secret strike on a school in Laos—the most heavily bombed country ever—during the Vietnam War.
Israel has bombed all levels of schools in Gaza as part of what critics have called a deliberate policy of scholasticide.
North Carolina-based independent journalist Lauren Steiner told Common Dreams Wednesday that the double-tap tactic is “beyond evil.”
Other such strikes have been reported during the US-Israeli war on Iran, including the Sunday evening bombing of Niloofar Square in Tehran, where people were celebrating the end of their daily Ramadan fast.
“Suddenly there was the noise and explosion,” one survivor, who was enjoying the evening at a café before the bombing, toldDrop Site News. “We got up and a few people ran away. We turned around to get our belongings and we saw that blood was spraying everywhere. Someone’s hand had fallen on the floor, a head had fallen on the floor.”
“When the second one hit, suddenly everything exploded,” he added. “The windows all shattered... One of my friends whom I don’t know that well, he was sitting here... He was severed in half. Half of him was thrown to the side. I put him back together and placed him where he was. A piece of his brain was thrown here on the floor.”
The IRCS says more than 1,000 Iranians have been killed during four days of US and Israeli bombing, with Iran’s retaliatory strikes killing six US service members, 11 Israelis, and a number of people in Gulf states that have come under Iranian bombardment.
“The enemy is exploiting every possible tactic to inflict maximum harm on our people,” IRCS spokesperson Mojtaba Khaledi said Tuesday. “We beg the public: Do not rush to bombed areas. The first moments after an explosion are the most dangerous—some munitions are programmed to detonate again, turning rescuers and survivors into additional victims.”
Some of the more infamous US double-tap strikes include the April 1999 Grdelica bridge bombing in Yugoslavia, which happened while a passenger train traveling from Belgrade, Serbia to Greece was crossing, killing more than 20 people; the March 2019 drone strike in Deir Ezzor, Syria that killed scores of civilians along with some Islamic State fighters; the April 2025 attack on Ras Isa port in al-Hudaydah, Yemen that massacred 84 civilians; and the bombing last September of a boat allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea.
Israeli has carried out many double-tap strikes in Gaza, including last summer’s attack on Nasser Hospital that killed more than 20 people including five journalists, and the July 2024 massacre of more than 90 people in a purported “safe zone” in al-Mawasi. Israel is facing a genocide case currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation.
The Pennsylvania Democrat "and his GOP colleagues now share ownership of Trump's stupid, unpopular, unjustified, and already tragic war—and the fallout," said Indivisible.
By Jessica Corbett • Mar 4, 2026
Democratic US Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted with nearly every Senate Republican on Wednesday to block a war powers resolution intended to halt President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Iran.
Only Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who co-sponsored S.J.Res.104 with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), joined Democrats for the 47-53 vote on the motion to discharge the measure, which would direct the removal of US armed forces from hostilities with Iran.
“This is shameful,” declared the anti-war group CodePink, calling out the senators who voted to let the war continue. “The blood is on their hands.”
The grassroots group Indivisible similarly said that Fetterman “and his GOP colleagues now share ownership of Trump’s stupid, unpopular, unjustified, and already tragic war—and the fallout.”
So far, over 1,000 people have been killed in Iran—including around 175 in an attack on a girls’ elementary school in Minab—according to the Iranian government, and six US service members are dead.
Cavan Kharrazian, senior policy adviser at the group Demand Progress, said in a statement that “the American people will remember who voted to continue an illegal, unnecessary war. Every senator who voted against the war powers resolution also voted against the wishes of the American people and against the safety of the service members they are sworn to protect.”
“The stakes are clear, and there is no more time for political games,” Kharrazian continued. “We cannot accept anything except full opposition to Trump’s war. This means no votes to authorize it for any period of time and no votes for spending a single penny on it.”
The vote came after Senate Democrats left a Tuesday night classified briefing even more concerned that the US-Israeli war on Iran will involve a ground invasion and drag on “forever.” The Pentagon is reportedly planning to seek around $50 billion to fund the war, which has not been authorized by Congress and has been widely condemned as illegal under international law.
In the lead-up to the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had urged Democrats and Republicans alike to “stand with the American people who are tired of war in the Middle East” and “act to stop Trump’s belligerence” by voting “yes.”
Pointing to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Wednesday morning press conference, during which he suggested the war could last at least eight weeks, Schumer said that “one thing is crystal clear: America is at war with no plan, no strategy.”
Schumer—who has faced criticism for not leading a strong enough opposition to Trump in general—continued:
In his own words, Hegseth said, “We are just getting started.” Hegseth says, “We are accelerating, not decelerating.” And in the wake of six brave Americans who died in uniform, Trump simply says: “There will likely be more. That’s the way it is.” This, my colleagues, is madness. Americans spent the last two decades fighting and dying in the Middle East. Parents watched their kids shipped off to foreign lands.
So many lives lost. So many billions wasted. So much suffering and anguish that scarred an entire generation. Why is Donald Trump hellbent on making history repeat itself? Why is he plunging America headfirst into a war that Americans do not want, and which he cannot even explain? Enough is enough. The American people deserve a say. And that is what our resolution is about.
As the voting got underway, Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, a Washington, DC-based think tank, highlighted on social media that “Democrats are at their desks, while the Republican side is empty. The message is unmistakable. For Democrats this is a solemn moment. For Republicans it’s just another vote.”
The Senate blocked Kaine and Paul’s measure from advancing to a final vote as the US House of Representatives on Wednesday debated H.Con.Res.38, a war powers resolution led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
“The Constitution entrusts Congress to declare war—not the president,” noted Alix Fraser, vice president of advocacy at Issue One. “Today’s Senate vote on Sens. Tim Kaine’s and Rand Paul’s war powers resolution is the first step in setting a precedent to reclaim war powers from the president. We thank Kaine and Paul for bringing this resolution to the floor in a bipartisan manner and Paul for his bravery in standing up and exercising Congress’ Article I responsibilities.”
“War puts the lives of American military personnel at risk, and the potential economic fallout is massive. The disruption of energy supply chains risks raising the price of everything from fuel to food for everyday Americans. This is why the representatives of we the people must make this decision,” he continued. “We hope that tomorrow, the House will follow the Senate’s lead and vote on a war powers resolution. Even if the House votes down a war powers resolution like the Senate, this will be an important step in reclaiming our experiment in self-government that our founders intended.”
Promoting the We the People Playbook crafted by his and other groups, Fraser stressed that “it is clear that more must be done to ensure that Congress plays its constitutional role. In two months, President Trump has started military conflicts in Iran and Venezuela without congressional approval, and it seems likely he will continue this course unless Congress steps up and reasserts its power.”
"Why is Trump attacking Ecuador?" asked one leftist news outlet. "Same reason he’s in Iran + Venezuela: oil 'secured' by force, sold as fighting a 'dictatorship' and/or 'drugs.'"
By Brett Wilkins • Mar 4, 2026
Just over two months after US forces bombed and invaded Venezuela and abducted its alleged drug-trafficking president, the Pentagon on Tuesday announced the launch of a joint campaign with Ecuador to combat “narco-terrorists” in the South American nation.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced the operation, which, with the deployment of ground troops, opens a new front in the Trump administration’s Operation Southern Spear targeting alleged drug traffickers. The campaign had previously consisted of dozens of airstrikes against boats that the US military claimed were transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. More than 150 people have been killed in such bombings.
Right-wing Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa—a close ally of US President Donald Trump whose family shipping business is allegedly linked to cocaine trafficking—hailed the joint operation as “a new phase against narco-terrorism.”
However, many Ecuadorian leftists denounced the operation.
“How can our armed forces allow so much?” asked former President Rafael Correa, who expelled the US military from Ecuador and famously said that he would let the US renew a lease on a controversial air base in Manta only if “they let us put a base in Miami.”
Last year, Ecuadorian voters rejected a proposal by Noboa to reopen US military bases in the country that were shuttered by Correa’s refusal to renew their leases.
Former National Assembly president and Imbabura Province Gov. Gabriela Rivadeneira noted in a television interview that Ecuador has “the only constitution in the world that prohibits foreign military presence” within its borders.
“As the US militarization advances, organized crime and drug trafficking advance further; this country was safer without foreign bases,” she contended.
The announcement of the joint campaign also prompted criticism around the world.
“As Trump deploys US troops in Ecuador, there’s a real danger that he’ll authorize them to summarily shoot rather than capture drug suspects as legally required,” former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said on social media. “In short, to commit more criminal murders.”
US climate campaigner Elise Joshi said on X that “Ecuador’s corrupt billionaire president Noboa just gave Trump permission to carry out a military operation in the country as he guts public services, Indigenous rights, and free speech.”
“Noboa sold out Ecuador to Trump’s war against the [Latin American] people,” Joshi added. “Shameful.”
Others questioned the US explanation for the intervention.
“Why is Trump attacking Ecuador?” the leftist magazine In These Timeswrote on its X page. “Same reason he’s in Iran + Venezuela: oil ‘secured’ by force, sold as fighting a ‘dictatorship’ and/or ‘drugs.’ Ecuador’s Indigenous organizers forced a pullback in drilling in 2019. Now they face the US military.”
Once one of Latin America’s most peaceful countries, Ecuador in recent years has become what many observers call a “cocaine superhighway” via which the majority of drugs produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru are shipped to the United States and other international markets. The booming drug trade has sparked a fierce turf war between traffickers that has plunged areas of Ecuador, especially in the coastal province of Guayas, into violence and terror.
The Trump and Noboa administrations have forged closer ties since the US leader’s return to office last year, much to the chagrin of many Ecuadorian leftists—who point to the long history of US military invasions and other interventions throughout Latin America, including a CIA-backed coup in Ecuador in 1963.
The Ecuador operation comes amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has killed more than 1,000 people, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Iran is the 10th country bombed on orders from US President Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “president of peace,” who has also attacked Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
"While they kick 17 million Americans off their healthcare, Republicans want to spend billions on Trump’s reckless war of choice," said the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. "Hell no."
By Jake Johnson • Mar 4, 2026
The Pentagon is reportedly planning to ask Congress to approve a supplemental funding package of around $50 billion to help finance the Trump administration’s unauthorized war on Iran, which has already cost billions of dollars and many lives.
Progressives were quick to reject the idea of providing the bloated, fraud-ridden Pentagon with additional funds to sustain a war that lawmakers did not approve and that is broadly unpopular with the American public.
“While they kick 17 million Americans off their healthcare, Republicans want to spend billions on Trump’s reckless war of choice,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “Hell no.”
Reutersreported Tuesday that “Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg has been leading Pentagon work in recent days on a supplemental budget request of around $50 billion that could be released as soon as Friday.”
“The new money would pay for replacing the weapons used in recent conflicts including those in the Middle East,” the outlet added. “The figure is preliminary and could change.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the most vocal cheerleader of the war in Congress, told reporters Tuesday that he believes “there will be a supplemental” funding request from the Pentagon.
“We’ll have to approve that,” said Graham.
“If this war continues at the same pace, Americans could see their government burn through tens of billions of dollars, funds that would amount to the cost of Medicaid for millions in the United States.”
The push for a supplemental funding package is the latest indication that the assault on Iran—launched with no clear justification, objective, or timeline and in violation of domestic and international law—could drag on indefinitely, even as Trump administration officials deny that the president who ran on avoiding wars has embroiled the nation in another disastrous quagmire in the Middle East.
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, wrote Tuesday that Congress should approve “not one damn penny” for Trump’s war on Iran.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) estimated Tuesday that the Iran war has likely already cost US taxpayers more than $5 billion.
“At more than $5 billion and counting, the costs of Operation Epic Fury—in only its first few days of operations—could cover Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for more than 2 million Americans for a year,” noted CAP’s Allison McManus. “If this war continues at the same pace, Americans could see their government burn through tens of billions of dollars, funds that would amount to the cost of Medicaid for millions in the United States.”
Ripping the US president's "flagrant disregard for European sovereignty—and security," co-general coordinator of Progressive International declared: "Close the bases. All of them."
By Jessica Corbett • Mar 3, 2026
President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut off all trade with Spain over the Spanish government’s refusal to allow US aircraft to use its military bases for the war that the United States and Israel are waging on Iran.
Speaking with reporters at the White House beside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz just after noon Eastern time, Trump initially signaled that he’d already taken action against Spain, but less than 10 minutes later, the president suggested he was still deciding.
Referring to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was also in the room, Trump said: “Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain.”
Trump claimed that “it started” last year, when every other NATO member caved to US pressure to aim for spending 5% of gross domestic product on defense by 2035, “and Spain didn’t do it.”
“And now Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases. And that’s all right. We could use their base if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it. But we don’t have to. But they were unfriendly,” the president continued. “Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people. They have great people but they don’t have great leadership.”
Again complaining about their refusal to commit to 5%, he said that “we’re gonna cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
However, just minutes later, while referencing the recent US Supreme Courtruling against his sweeping tariffs, Trump said: “As an example, we talked about Spain. I could, tomorrow, stop, or today even better, stop everything having to do with Spain. All business having to do with Spain, I have the right to stop it—embargoes, do anything I want with it. And we may do that with Spain.”
Both sets of remarks were swiftly denounced by a range of critics. The anti-war group CodePink declared: “Ludicrous. The US is threatening to stop all trade with Spain to force them to spend more money in an effective US weapons cartel. This is only normal in a war economy.”
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, called out Trump’s threat to use Spanish bases without permission. Sharing a clip on social media, he said, “Trump openly threatens the territorial sovereignty of yet another NATO ally.
Zeteo journalist Mehdi Hasan similarly responded: “He is a 19th century imperialist. Or at least talks like one and wishes he was one. ‘We could just fly in’ to Spain, against the wishes of the sovereign national government? That’s literally an illegal invasion and brazen violation of international law.”
On Monday, David Adler, co-general coordinator of Progressive International, welcomed Spain’s decision and argued that “Europe should close all of the US bases on its soil.”
After Trump’s Tuesday comments, Adler said: “Flagrant disregard for European sovereignty—and security. Enough. Close the bases. All of them.”
“Holy shit—Trump said this while sitting next to Friedrich Merz?!” he added. “Total European humiliation. Truly abject.”
“The peoples of Europe do not want to be complicit in a system that kills children and protects those who profit from their blood,” Albanese said. “Europe deserves better, and you are already part of that change. Thank you.”
One noncommissioned officer said he was directed to tell his troops that Trump was "anointed by Jesus" and that war with Iran was "all part of God’s divine plan" to bring about Armageddon.
By Stephen Prager • Mar 3, 2026
In less than a week, the US and Israel’s war has rendered unfathomable suffering upon the people of Iran. Over 180 schoolgirls and staffers were killed in a massacre this weekend, and several hospitals have reportedly been struck, amid numerous other attacks on civilians.
But some US troops are being told the bloodletting is all a part of God’s plan.
At a briefing on Monday, as President Donald Trump unleashed what has been called a “carpet bombing” of Tehran, a combat-unit commander reportedly told noncommissioned officers (NCOs) that the commander-in-chief was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
The complaint, sent by one of those noncommissioned officers, was just one of at least 110 similar reports received by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) since Trump first launched strikes on Saturday.
In compliance with the First Amendment, the Department of Defense has long adopted rules against proselytizing within the armed forces. But under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an evangelical Christian who has said the West must wage a “crusade” against Islam, Christian nationalist invocations in the military have become commonplace.
Mikey Weinstein, the president and founder of MRFF and an Air Force veteran who served in the White House of former President Ronald Reagan, told independent journalist Jonathan Larsen that the group has been “inundated” with complaints from NCOs since Saturday, which all have “one damn thing in freaking common.”
“Our MRFF clients report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new ‘biblically-sanctioned’ war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian ‘End Times’ as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation,” Weinstein said.
“Many of their commanders,” he added, “are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be, zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100% accordance with fundamentalist Christian end-of-the-world eschatology.”
According to Larsen, who first reported on the MRFF’s findings on Monday, the message has been spread far and wide as US troops rained missiles down upon Iran.
Larsen reported that the “complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations,” and have involved commanders in every branch of the US military.
One noncommissioned officer, who did not identify himself out of fear of retaliation, said his commander “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”
The NCO added that his commander “had a big grin on his face when he said all of this, which made his message seem even more crazy.”
“Our commander would probably be described as a ‘Christian First’ supporter,” he said. “He has been this way for a very long time and makes it clear that he desires all of us under him to become just like him as a Christian. But what he did this morning was so toxic and over the line that it shocked many of us in attendance at the ops readiness briefing.”
The NCO identified himself as a Christian, but emailed MRFF on behalf of 15 of his troops, which included at least one Muslim and one Jewish person.
He said that their commanders’ remarks “destroy morale and unit cohesion and are in violation of the oaths we swore to support the Constitution.”
Christian nationalism has long simmered just under the surface of US military culture and has been invoked by presidents of the past, including George W. Bush, who referred to his War on Terror as a “crusade.”
But Hegseth, who regularly hosts Christian prayer services at the Pentagon during work hours, rails against “secular humanism” and the “godless left,” and has hosted the notorious fundamentalist pastor Doug Wilson—who opposes the right of women to vote and calls for the US to be a Christian theocracy—at the Pentagon, has dropped any pretenses of religious pluralism.
“While America’s relationship with Iran is influenced by all the typical geopolitical factors of oil, culture, and nuclear weaponry, there is a part of American foreign policy that is influenced by apocalyptic evangelical theology,” wrote Josh Olds, a pastor and theologian, on Monday for Baptist News Global.
Christian fundamentalists, some of whom have the ear of the White House, he said, view an Iranian war with Israel as central to triggering Armageddon, during which God will miraculously strike down Israel’s enemies, Jesus will return to Earth, and Christians will be raptured to Heaven, according to Biblical teachings.
He said that while Iran’s Muslim leaders are often accused of being dangerously irrational out of blind religious fundamentalism, “it is increasingly clear that American actions are shaped by it as well.”
In just over three days, US and Israeli strikes have killed at least 787 people in Iran, according to a Tuesday report from the Iranian Red Crescent Society, including hundreds of civilians. In addition to schools and hospitals, attacks have been reported against crowded residential buildings, a radio and TV broadcast center, and a sports complex.
“Donald Trump partnered with Israel to bomb Iran because of the influence of an eschatology that sees conflict with Iran as setting the stage for fulfilled prophecy,” Olds said. “The irony is profound: A faith centered on loving enemies and making peace becomes a framework that welcomes and advocates violence. The result is not the advance of God’s kingdom but its irrevocable damage in the eyes of the world.”
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We must remember: Under international law, aggression is not just another war crime—it is the gravest crime of all. The judges at the Nuremberg Trials called aggression “the supreme international crime,” because it “contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
By Medea Benjamin,Nicolas J.S. Davies • Mar 7, 2026
The group of Caribbean and Latin American leaders attending Trump’s weekend summit in Miami are the fan club of his aggressive interventionism, his so-called “war on narco-terror,” and his administration’s attacks on left-wing governments and movements.
Where would we be if the opposition party had followed through on that vote in April? What if DOGE; illegal firings of federal workers; and wildly destabilizing, illegal tariffs had been enough for Congress to begin asserting their power?
“There is a time when silence is a lie, when silence is complicity, and when silence betrays our troops, our country, and ourselves. We owe it to our troops, as well as to other potential victims of this war, to speak the truth."
Let us be clear about what the United States and Israel are pursuing. The US objective is not the security of the American people. The objective is global hegemony. The attempt is to destroy the UN and the international rule of law—an attempt that will fail.
LAST 2 WEEKS IN REVIEW I’m your Representative in Congress and I write to keep you informed. The chaos and costs of Trump’s tariff strategy A junior varsity national security team No one is above the law, or below it Big ideas to govern better Hitting back on behalf of scientists Meeting with constituents in the MA-04 The chaos and costs of Trump’s tariff strategy WSJ’s “dumbest trade war in history”: The president announced sweeping tariffs this week, which amount to a $500+ billion tax hike on everyday Americans. The tariffs were calculated nonsensically and communicated incoherently. There is robust debate between policymakers and economists about how tariffs might help America, but every serious participant in that debate recognizes that the chaos of this tariff roll-out will cause pain for businesses, families, and allies alike. I have often joined the tariff debate, generally arguing for free trade with the exception of Chin...
Revelations A Reason To Smile Dan Rather and Team Steady Mar 23 Credit: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater The story of an Idaho public school teacher and the fight over her classroom poster this week reminded me of one of the most powerful American dance pieces I have had the good fortune to see. First, to Idaho. Sarah Inama teaches sixth grade. Like many teachers, she has adorned her classroom with posters and signs meant to inspire her students. One of those posters depicts hands of various hues with the text “Everyone is welcome here.” In January, Inama was told that the poster violates school district policy and that she must take it down. The policy “ensures that classrooms remain neutral.” The school district informed Inama that the poster is considered a “personal opinion” and that “everyone is welcome here” is not something everyone believes. Though she took down the poster immediately, after reflecting on what happened, she put it back up a few days later. In an emai...
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