We need to stop looking at the military action in Iran as an act of war. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 it was an act of war. If other European countries would have defended Poland and counterattacked Germany, it may have been defeated, and World War II would not have happened. Would that counterattack be considered an act of war or an effort to stop a war?
In 1979, militant Iranian students attacked our embassy, taking our diplomats hostage. The new Iranian government swore death to America and since then they, or their proxies, have targeted Americans and U.S. facilities over 180 times. A car bomb killed 63 at the U.S. embassy in Beirut. A truck bomb at a Beirut Marine compound killed 220 Marines. Hamas has blown up buses and a shopping center, killing dozens, including 30 Americans. According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, Iran and its proxies conducted over 180 attacks against U.S. forces from October 2023 to November 2024.
Iran has fired missiles at military bases in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Iran has supplied the Houthis in Yemen to fire at commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden. Iran has continually improved the weapons’ precision, range and lethality. Not to mention repeated efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Iran supplies weapons to partners and proxies across the world, including Russia to use in the Ukraine.
So, I ask you, is President Trump’s military action against Iran an act of war, or an act of peace to stop a war?
Tom Cerra
Latrobe