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Striking Back: Iran Has Been at War with America for 46 Years
Aftermath of the bombing of the US Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, October 1983. (Photo: Screenshot)
President Donald Trump ran on a platform to end wars, including Ukraine, Gaza, and the Red Sea. He offered Iran multiple opportunities to negotiate a better future.
If people didn’t want to eliminate the Houthi threat that affected our USCENTCOM allies Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, as well as Israel, that’s OK. If they insisted upfront that American “boots” didn’t belong anywhere in the region, that’s OK. If they didn’t want the US to cooperate with our CENTCOM partner, Israel, OK fine. That’s their opinion.
But if they thought the Iranian regime was not at war with the US, so there was no need to bother them in their pursuit of the destruction of Israel or spread of terrorism — or if they thought Iran’s unbridled nuclear weapons capability only threatened Israel — they are on another planet.
Ilhan Omar, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Hakeem Jeffries, Ed Markey, Amy Klobuchar, Antonio Guterrez, and more are all out of touch with reality and reason.
Think of it this way: Donald Trump just avenged more than 1,000 American service personnel killed, and thousands wounded and held hostage by Iran since the mullahs declared war on us in 1979.
Don’t forget them.
We are Iran’s “Great Satan” to Israel’s “Little Satan.”
“Student activists” in Tehran occupied the US embassy in 1979 and held Americans hostage for 444 days. The Americans were paraded through the streets blindfolded. Six managed to escape with the help of our Canadian allies — remember Argo?
In 1983, Iran bragged about the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 220 US Marines, 21 other US servicemembers, and 58 French soldiers.
Israel’s pager attack on Hezbollah in September 2024 eliminated the masterminds of the attack – who had been on the FBI Most Wanted list for 41 years.
In 1984, Iran’s proxy Hezbollah kidnapped, tortured, and killed CIA Station Chief William Francis Buckley, whose identity they apparently learned from classified documents seized from the embassy in Tehran. Buckley was transferred to Iran and tortured there, before being returned to Lebanon.
In 1985, US Navy diver Robert Stethem was beaten and kicked to death before his body was dumped on the tarmac by Hezbollah in Beirut. In 1988, Hezbollah kidnapped Colonel William R. Higgins and tortured him for months. Former FBI agent Robert Levinson was presumed kidnapped by Iran in 2007 and killed; his body has not been recovered.
In 1996, an explosion at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia killed 19 American servicemembers.
In 2011, there was an Iranian plot to kill a Saudi diplomat in Washington, D.C., and to attack the Israeli and Saudi embassies. That year, too, Iran began to take steps to mine the Persian Gulf.
US Naval Intelligence shows Iranian warships have been in the Red Sea — where Iran has no border — since 2011. Part of Iran’s support for the Houthi rebellion in Yemen can be explained because it’s near the US Expeditionary Force base in Djibouti, close to the Straits of Hormuz. Iran provides missiles and training to the Houthis.
In 2012, chairman of the Iranian chiefs of staff, Hassan Firuzabadi, said, “We do have the plan to close the Strait of Hormuz, since a member of the military must plan for all scenarios.”
Iranian war games in 2015 were designed against American forces and included passing skills along to proxy forces. Beginning in 2016, swarms of Iranian fast boats harassed American ships and others in the Persian Gulf, engaging in what the commander of the US Central Command called “unsafe maneuvers.”
Iran captured American sailors and released video footage of them — a violation of their rights under the Geneva Convention.
In 2018, US intelligence revealed that Iran was responsible for more than 600 American military deaths in Iraq and thousands wounded by Iranian IEDs in Iraq. In 2024, three military contractors working in Jordan were killed in a drone attack and 40 others were injured. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, claimed responsibility.
If you still think the US is just fine; protected by two oceans and friendly neighbors, and doesn’t have to care about freedom of navigation, trade routes, oil exports, China, Russia, or North Korean missile and nuclear weapons capability, that’s OK, too.
Wait.
No, it isn’t.
Peace is always good; peace is always important. But real peace does not consist of “turning the other cheek” while your enemy gets stronger. It is the outgrowth of strong and measured American cooperation with regional partners — in Europe, in Asia and in the Middle East — to ensure that malevolent actors don’t have an opportunity to ruin the system of international travel and commerce or to impose their vision of “peace” on the unwilling. Or to commit genocide.
Ensuring that Iran does not have nuclear weapons is a crucial step in that direction. And avenging American servicemembers across countries and decades counts as well.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly magazine.
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Spain Pushes EU to Suspend Israel Trade Pact Amid Gaza Conflict, Sparking Division Within Bloc
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, and Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin hold a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, May 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Johanna Geron
Spain will formally petition the European Union to approve an “immediate suspension” of its association agreement with Israel — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with Jerusalem — to protest what it calls human rights violations in Gaza.
On Monday, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced that the country will also ask the EU to approve an arms embargo on Israel and impose sanctions on individuals accused of undermining the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“We have on the table a report by the High Representative, requested for many months by Spain, which clearly indicates what Spain already knew, that there is a flagrant violation of human rights at this time in Gaza by Israel and that, therefore, that association council between the European Union and Israel, which is precisely based on human rights, is being violated,” Albares said in a statement.
“The Palestinian Gazans need action and, therefore, the important thing today is not to denounce … we have done it for months,” the top Spanish diplomat continued. “It is not the denunciations that are going to stop this inhumane war in Gaza, it is the actions.”
“The time for words, for statements, is behind us,” Albares said, calling on the EU to show the “courage” to take concrete action.
Spain’s latest anti-Israel move follows a newly released EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.
According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.
While the document acknowledges the existence of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war with its Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.
The eight-page document was set for discussion at Monday’s EU Foreign Affairs Council, followed by a personal briefing from EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas to the bloc’s leaders at the June summit later this week in Brussels.
“I will now address the results of the review with Israel,” Kallas said at a news conference following a meeting of European foreign ministers. “Our first goal is to change the situation on the ground and help humanitarian aid to get in.”
Kallas said she would return to the issue in July if there had been no improvement.
This latest anti-Israel push by several EU member states builds on Belgium’s recent decision to review Israel’s compliance with its trade agreement — a process initiated by the Netherlands and led by Kallas, after a majority of member states called for a formal probe.
Despite efforts by some European countries to undermine Israel’s defensive campaign against Hamas in Gaza, the Jewish state continues to have support within the EU.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has made clear that Rome opposes any suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
“Our position is different from that of Spain,” Tajani said in a statement, adding that maintaining open relations with Israel has helped facilitate the evacuation of civilians from Gaza.
Germany also does not support calls to suspend the pact governing Israel‘s relations with the EU.
“Our position is very clear — we do not support either a suspension or a partial suspension,” the official said at a German government briefing, according to Reuters.
For its part, Spain in recent years has been one of Jerusalem’s fiercest critics, a stance that has only intensified since Hamas’s onslaught on Israel.
Albares, with the backing of his government including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, has actively pushed for anti-Israel measures on the international stage, all while portraying himself as a dedicated supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain halted arms shipments from its own defense companies to Israel and launched a diplomatic campaign to curb the country’s military response.
At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with some falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”
Last year, Spain officially recognized a Palestinian state, claiming the move was accelerated by the Israel-Hamas war and would help foster peace in the region. Israeli officials described the decision as a “reward for terrorism.”
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Progressive Democrats Condemn US Airstrikes on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. Photo: Craig Hudson/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Progressive members of the US Congress are denouncing President Donald Trump’s decision to order military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend, calling the move reckless, illegal, and a dangerous provocation that could drag the United States into a broader conflict in the Middle East.
On Saturday night, Trump authorized Operation Midnight Hammer, a large-scale US strike on three key Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. The Pentagon later revealed that seven B‑2 Spirit stealth bombers flew from Whiteman Air Force base, escorted by fighter jets and refueling tankers, and supported by a submarine-launched salvo of Tomahawk missiles targeting Isfahan. The B‑2s pummeled Fordo and Natanz with 14 massive bunker-buster bombs.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), one of the most outspoken progressive voices in Congress, denounced the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
“The president’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” Ocasi0-Cortez said in a statement.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), another longtime critic of American interventionism, criticized the airstrikes while speaking to an audience of his supporters.
“Not only is this news … alarming, but it is so grossly unconstitutional. … The only entity that can take this country to war is the US Congress,” Sanders said.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the leader of House Democrats, lambasted Trump for allegedly circumventing Congress in authorizing the strikes: “President Trump misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) condemned the strikes and suggested they could escalate violence within the region.
“The strikes on Iran, ordered by President Trump and executed without congressional authorization, mark a dangerous and reckless escalation of an already volatile conflict in the Middle East,” Omar wrote on X/Twitter.
“Military strikes will not bring peace. They will only provoke more violence, destabilize the region, and endanger US troops and civilians. We’ve seen what happens when diplomacy is sidelined in favor of bombs. It only brings more death and destruction,” she continued.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the sole Palestinian-American woman in Congress, called the strikes a “blatant violation of our Constitution.”
“Instead of listening to the American people, Trump is listening to War Criminal Netanyahu, who lied about Iraq and is lying once again about Iran. Congress must act immediately to exert its war powers and stop this unconstitutional act of war,” Tlaib said in a statement, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying American troops if a formal declaration of war has not already been issued. The resolution also mandates that the president withdraw any forces deployed in a conflict within 60 days if Congress has not formally declared war.
Supporters of the US strike have argued that Trump is acting within his legal authority, noting that the US government has long identified Iran as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism responsible for the deaths of many Americans. Trump and many lawmakers have said for years that such a regime can’t be allowed to build nuclear weapons, even if it means using military force.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes.
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Iran Attacks US Base in Qatar With Missiles, Doha Says No Casualties
Traces are seen in the sky after Iran’s armed forces say they targeted The Al-Udeid base in a missile attack, as seen from Doha, Qatar, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Iran launched multiple missiles against the Al Udeid US airbase in Qatar on Monday, retaliating for American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend.
In a post on X, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced the country had successfully intercepted Iranian missiles, noting there were no casualties, but condemned the strikes as “brazen aggression.”
“The State of Qatar strongly condemns the attack that targeted Al-Udeid Air Base by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. We consider this a flagrant violation of sovereignty,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said in a statement.
“We reassured that Qatar’s air defenses successfully thwarted the attack and intercepted the Iranian missiles,” he continued.
Shortly after the attack, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council also released a statement confirming it had carried out the strike on Qatar.
“The base that was targeted in the attack by the powerful Iranian forces was far from urban facilities and residential areas in Qatar,” the statement reads. “This action did not pose any threat to our friendly and brotherly country, Qatar, and its noble people.”
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