Hello, friends,

I originally wrote this as a script for Dystopian Report, but since that would be mostly staring into a camera and talking, I felt like leaving it as text is probably better.

We have a lot we’re going to talk about, but it’s worth noting up front that this is a fluid situation and some news may be inaccurate or facts on the ground might change at any point during this article’s production.  We’re not doing to do a lot of “The latest updates” so much as we’re going to assess the overall situation, but double-check anything I say with credible sources as nobody - including you, including me - is immune to propaganda.

With that said, let’s start with the fundamental fact:  At some time around 1:00 AM EST, the United States and Israel began what is, importantly, an unconstitutional, unprovoked, and illegal war against the nation of Iran.  Unlike the recent June attack, this was not limited strikes against Iran’s military:  This was a decapitation strike aimed at assassinating Iran’s military and civilian government.  As of 3:26 PM, Israel and the US are claiming that Ayatollah Khamenei has been killed - this is as yet independently unconfirmed, as we can’t take our own word for truth.

With that in mind, let’s discuss those three things I mentioned:  That the war is unconstitutional, unprovoked, and illegal.

And let’s begin with constitutionality:  Donald Trump used the word “war” to describe this situation.  Not “conflict,” not “strikes,” not “exchange,” not “operation.”  But, “War.”  Specifically, he said, quote:  “The lives of courageous heroes may be lost and we may have casualties.  That often happens in war.”

Now, we know Trump is not exactly proficient with his word choice, right?  We know he probably tried really hard not to use that word, but still used it as an oopsie.  Some would say, “Well, you can’t hold him accountable for that.  This isn’t really a war-war, it’s just something else.”

But it IS a war, because people are dying at the hands of American soldiers.  Young American men and women are being turned into murderers before our eyes.  For instance, in Minab in the Hormozgan province, we bombed a girls’ school killing at least 50 as of last count.  Are you going to tell me that isn’t evidence of a war?

So this is a war, and it is a war Donald Trump declared - and not our Congress, who our Constitution gives the authority to declare war.  To be clear, this is not meant to be a reactive declaration where the United States launches attacks and then Congress authorizes war.  Congress is supposed to authorize first, except in the circumstances of an extreme emergency where the United States falls under a direct attack and the President has to defend our people.  Think Pearl Harbor or 9/11.

You can argue that some of those powers were ceded in the War Powers Act, but that act spells out how the situation has to actively require the use of the U.S. Military for an emergent situation where the nation is in danger.  Sure, if the United States fell under attack by Iran’s military, we’d be justified in striking.  But that’s not what happened.

And now we examine the second of those three things:  That this is an unprovoked attack against Iran.

For weeks, if not months, the Trump regime has been apparently-feigning negotiations with the Iranian one over Iran’s alleged nuclear program.  As reported by Leah McElrath, Dropsite News has cited Israeli officials in reporting that the plan to attack was agreed on long ago, but who knows if that’s accurate.  It’s worth noting that Iran has been a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has consistently denied that it is pursuing a nuclear weapon.  Do I believe them?  I don’t know.  There’s evidence both ways, but the strongest evidence is that they don’t have one presently.

I do know that it is nakedly obvious that the only way a nation can guarantee its independence is for that nation to have nuclear weapons - see Ukraine, see Iraq, see Venezuela, see Cuba - and then contrast that versus North Korea.  If Iran had nuclear weapons, it’s safe to say they would not currently be under attack.

But about that, even if you trust the Trump regime’s word on Iran’s nuclear program, that brings up a logical wormhole.  The Trump Regime has long claimed that June’s “Operation Midnight Hammer” totally destroyed Iran’s nuclear program.  So by their own words, Iran has no nuclear program.  Do I believe them?  Of course not.

Now, remember what kind of attack we launched:  This was not a limited strike against nuclear assets.  This was a decapitation strike against Iran’s civilian government.  This would be as if a nation launched a bombing run against Washington DC to kill Donald Trump and claimed it was to prevent the U.S. from building weapons of mass destruction.

Do you understand why “War” is the right word, yet?

Remember what else Trump said during his short little speech declaring his war:  That this is a regime change operation.  He called on Iranians to wait for the U.S. and Israel to be done bombing, then to come out of their shelters and take their government over.

It certainly can’t be both, can it?  It can’t be, “This is a war to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons” as well as, “This is a war to selectively change Iran’s government.”  Those are two totally different types of war.  They have completely, radically different justifications.  They have completely, radically different scopes.

‘But, Jesse, isn’t the Iranian regime evil?’  Yes!  Yes, it absolutely is!  They’ve killed upwards of tens of thousands of protestors who were advocating for a better life.  It’s a totalitarian dictatorship.  There’s no doubt about that.

Let’s talk about legality.

There are really two categories of legality in this case:  U.S. law, and international law.

If Trump had gone to Congress and said, “Hey, Iran is killing its innocent people and we need to protect them immediately,” and Congress voted to declare war on Iran, that would satisfy U.S. legal requirements.

He didn’t do that, so the war is illegal.

It would not, however, fully satisfy international legal requirements.

Now, I’m not a lawyer, let alone an international lawyer, but I do know that foreign intervention is still an attack against a government.  I do know that nations who are attacked have the right to defend themselves against their attackers.  I do know that if a member of the International Criminal Court is attacked, its attackers are subject to the court - but I also know Iran is NOT a member of the ICC, nor is the US.

That means international law is relatively limited in what it can do to prosecute.  There are laws regarding the use of force, but those are matters for the United Nations Security Council to deal with.  Guess who has a permanent, veto-wielding seat on that council?  The U.S.  Every nation can vote to condemn us for it, but we can veto it, making international law wholly toothless.

However, our ability to sidestep international laws committing the United States to following the UN Charter’s Article 2 Section 4 prohibition against using force or the threat of force does not render that toothlessness into permission.

Once again, the Security Council certainly has the ability to step in, but it is actually an even more broken system than the U.S. Congress is, and even if we put intervention in Iran to a vote, well, China and Russia would certainly veto that.

My last thought on legality is that I am indeed the kind of person who believes that morality wins out over law.  In other words, it matters more to be morally correct than it does to be legally correct.  Under the right circumstances, I could be convinced by an argument that a nation is willing to intervene in anothers’ on-going slaughter of its own people even if the international community doesn’t want to get involved.  However, there is no world in which the Trump Regime would ever convince me to support them because they are notorious liars and they have lied about everything having to do with this.

I am against this unconstitutional, unprovoked, illegal war, and I condemn The United States and Israel for launching it.

Let’s start with the usual to-do list.

First of all, get on the phone with your Congresspeople - your Representative and two Senators - and demand they vote to impeach Donald Trump for declaring war without Congressional support.

Second, be loud and vocal that you will not support the United States war machine.

With those out of the way, what comes next?  That depends on what facts emerge.

Is it possible that the Ayatollah is dead, that his government is fractured, and that Iran’s people will be able to overthrow their oppressive government in order to establish a more benevolent one?  Surprisingly, yes.  That is possible.  It would require a great deal of American air support to complete an actual revolution - again, a full-fledged war - but if there are enough people on the ground who support a new government, maybe a new government comes out from it.

The generalized talk I’ve seen in the media is of this being an approximately four-day war.  Maybe that’s as long as they think they can get away with it without having to report anything to Congress, or before they can be stopped by Congress.  But that’s just one line of thought, and others have said this war could last weeks.  Who’s to say?

But it is already evident that innocent children are being blown into bits and vaporized in order to create that opportunity, and nothing will wash that blood off of our hands.  It’s one thing if we had been forthright with our intentions, declared an honest war, and targeted only military targets.  Instead, we’ve bombed a school.  We’ve probably bombed more than one.  We’re complicit in those childrens’ deaths.

The last thing to note, really, is that when a much more powerful nation attacks a much weaker one, the weaker one’s solution might be to rely on asymmetric warfare.  That would look like the activation of what we’d call terrorist cells within the United States, which could produce anything from lone-wolf style attacks such as mass shootings, suicide bombings, or vehicle rammings.  It could also produce more advanced attacks, though that would require in-US or in-Israel coordination that is likely to prove unlikely.  Obviously this would be bad, but it’s how they’d react, so we need to be aware of that.

And that’s really all I have to say about this war.  This truly is a nightmarish situation.