It Was Not Trump Who Started the Iran War

It is by now well known that President Donald Trump and his administration have unleashed the American military on Iran, initially through a February 28th attack that resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and top deputies. In the time since, the United States and its Israeli partners have significantly diminished Iran's military capacity. Many of President Trump's critics have weighed in, accusing him of violating his promise to promote peace while he was a candidate for this high office, both in 2024 and previously.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris declared: “This is a dangerous and unnecessary gamble with American lives that also jeopardizes stability in the region and our standing in the world. What we are witnessing is not strength. It is recklessness dressed up as resolve.” Journalist Glenn Greenwald commented above a November 4, 2024 image posted by the Republican Party on X declaring then-candidates Trump and J.D. Vance "the pro-peace ticket," now decrying their campaign "[o]ne of the most shamelessly fraudulent presidential campaigns in American history." Similarly, former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene inveighed: “The Trump admin actually asked in a poll how many casualties voters were willing to accept in a war with Iran??? How about ZERO you bunch of sick f—liars. We voted for America First and ZERO wars." Criticism of the war in Iran also featured prominently in the significant support received by Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie from grassroots Republican donors and volunteers in his recent primary defeat to Ed Gallrein.

The aggressed upon country, the United States, is not required by international or any other law to respond immediately. The defensive nation may defend itself at the time of its choosing.

To these critics' credit, it is indeed true that the Trump campaign strongly emphasized a peace platform, promising no more forever wars and winding down American entanglements abroad. Therefore, on a superficial reading, the American attack on Iran is seemingly incompatible with the President's promises on the campaign trail. More damaging, in the eyes of these critics, President Trump is guilty of hypocrisy, lying, and fraud.

Is there any way to defend President Trump, without falling into the trap mentioned by George Orwell in his 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four that "WAR IS PEACE/FREEDOM IS SLAVERY/IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."

Yes, there is.

In November of 1979, Iranian militants seized the American embassy in Tehran, a grave violation of the inviolability of American diplomatic premises under international law. To add insult to injury, the Islamic Republic kidnapped sixty-six American hostages and held them for 444 days.