How Attacking Iran Hurts the American People
On a cold February morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House. However, this wasn’t any normal state visit. After being brought inside, out of the view of reporters, American and Israeli officials briefly met in the cabinet room. Netanyahu, a foreign leader, was brought into the Situation Room for a meeting with the president and his inner circle. No one outside of the room, including members of the president’s cabinet, knew what was happening. Over the next hour, Netanyahu and his closest allies persuaded United States President Donald Trump that Iran was getting close to developing a nuclear weapon, and that the U.S. should join Israel in an attack. Just two and a half weeks later, without a plan to achieve realistic goals or an end to the war, the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in a joint operation — an unnecessary and unprecedented attack that will come with severe economic repercussions to the American public.
Before the war, Brent Crude (the main ingredient in gasoline) was trading at around $70 to $72 a barrel. As of April 19th, it was trading at $96.25, down from $119 a barrel just after the war started. This is largely due to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes. The spike in oil prices has forced some families to make an extremely difficult choice: put food on the table or fill up the car tank to go to work.
The need for Americans to make that decision was not only the result of a lack of a strategic plan, but it was unnecessary and disproportionately hurt the most vulnerable. Another missing aspect before the declaration of war was congressional approval, as required by the United States Constitution. However, it is important to acknowledge that every president since Nixon has failed to seek congressional approval before military action. This means not only is the war unconstitutional, but since the Executive Branch failed to seek congressional approval, there were no measures to ensure that they were acting in the best interest of the American people. In addition, the U.S. faced no immediate threat to national security, which would have given the president short-term authority for military action. Because of Israel’s proximity to Iran and thus a higher vulnerability to targeted strikes, it makes more sense that Israel would need to declare war, but that does not justify the American need to get involved. Recently, Iran was no more of a threat to the United States than it has been for a while, and it certainly wasn’t enough of a threat to justify the costs of immediate military action over further diplomatic attempts. Had the Trump administration pursued those diplomatic attempts instead of recklessly going to war, the American people wouldn’t be forced to bear the consequences of an unnecessary war.
