Readers Write: The Israel-Iran war

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Way to go, Congress. It must be the season of abdication, because you have fully embraced refusing to play your role in American governance. First, you refuse to temper the president’s actions on tariffs and trade, resulting in instability in both the world and national economies with no particular benefit to anyone.

Now he ordered the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites, and you have stood by, allowing him to usurp your authority in authorizing war. Whatever one thinks of the Iranian regime (and I, for one, am not a fan), this bombing is a straightforward act of war and nothing else. There is no national self-defense involved, no protection of American citizens or even the pretense of that — just naked aggression that sabotaged ongoing diplomacy and negotiations on other fronts with respect to Iran’s nuclear program. The Netanyahu government may benefit from this attack, but it’s hard to say that anyone else does.

Please grow a spine, dear Congress, assert your role, and help shield the nation (and world) from the impulsive whims of a president at odds with good governance and democracy.

Charles Watt, St. Paul

•••

The condemnation from some quarters of Congress for the absence of congressional consent for the massive attack by American air forces on the three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend overlooks past precedent.

Regardless of the propriety of the military action, its undertaking without prior consultation with Congress or consent by it is consistent with prior uses of the U.S. military abroad.

The war in Vietnam was fought for nearly a decade without a congressional declaration of war, as was the lengthy military action in Iraq in the 2000s, the even-longer one in Afghanistan for two decades, the short-term four-day invasion of Grenada in 1983, along with a number of other foreign military ventures.

Presidents of both parties, from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan to the two Bushes to Barack Obama to Joe Biden and others, engaged in these actions without Congress exercising of its official, constitutional or statutory war powers in order to advance or protect whatever American interests they perceived existed.

Whether the latest action against Iran is wise or imprudent, it’s hardly unprecedented.

Marshall H. Tanick, Minneapolis

•••

Congratulations to our Minnesota Republican congressional delegation and the remaining GOP Congress for failing to rein in President Donald Trump, allowing him to ignore the courts, the law and the Constitution. By attacking Iran without showing that it is a current viable threat, Iran has now launched attacks on a U.S. base in the Middle East. This will not likely be the last of the attacks. The Trump regime has now emboldened Iran without dismantling their nuclear capabilities as claimed, and this will presumably disrupt any ongoing negotiations with that country. How disheartening to those families who have relatives serving in the armed forces. No one is safe, and we will have more attacks like the one on the USS Cole in 2000.

Will the next target be a civilian one? It is time for our Republican representatives to rein in the leader of their party.

Kelly Befus, Blaine

•••

It was a nice try by the New York Times in its attempt to drive a wedge within the MAGA movement. The article “Trump base roars over Iran” (reprinted in the Star Tribune on June 20) cites podcasters and politicians who have their own view of MAGA. Certainly Trump has railed against “forever wars” that lacked a defined mission and dragged on. If this cabal really believes MAGA negates U.S. involvement in any wars, it is greatly misguided. Claims of ripping apart the MAGA movement are wildly exaggerated.

Isolationism is a dangerous foreign policy. The reality is that Iran has been at war with the U.S. for 46 years. Isn’t that long enough? It killed 603 Americans in Iraq and has used much of the billions given to them by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to fund their proxy war against Israel. It has repeatedly called for the death of the U.S. along with Israel and caused chaos in the region.

Trump has repeatedly invoked the “peace through strength” mantra. With their strict interpretation of MAGA, critics do not understand that it also means the willingness to use strength. The current hostilities found Israel without a specific munition nor the ability to deliver it. Recall, too, that MAGA means Iran will never obtain nuclear weapons. If Trump can negotiate dismantling their program and have it verified, great! If not, good luck to them, as devastation will be their reward. To those politicians and podcasters who have their own rigid ideology about MAGA, good luck to them, too.

Joe Polunc, Waconia

•••

Over the weekend, Vice President JD Vance stated: “We’re not at war with Iran, we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program!” Would Vance have believed Japanese Emperor Hirohito if he had said on Dec. 8, 1941: “We’re not at war with America, we’re at war with America’s naval bases”?

James Halvorson, Farmington

•••

In recent memory, since the Iraq War in 2003, the term “regime change” has become a dirty word in American politics. It brings back memories of an unnecessary and uncalled for war against Iraq, which brought very heavy costs and no benefits to the U.S. Regime change is now being proposed as the solution to end Iranian aggression and belligerence in the Middle East. It is important to note that because regime change was the wrong solution to Iraq’s issues in 2003, it does not mean that it is the wrong solution for every other problem in the Middle East. The only strategic victory that can be achieved against the Iranian regime is through regime change. The core of the 1979 Iranian Revolution was, and remains, exporting their revolution (translation: Iranian hegemony, terrorism and instability) to the rest of the Middle East.

Though not explicitly stated in its religious rhetoric, rebuilding the power and reach of the ancient Persian Empire is also at the core of the Iranian regime, which has done nothing over the past 45 years except spread violence, chaos and proxy militant terrorist groups across the Middle East targeting Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Gaza and Israel. The Iranian regime has made promises, deals and agreements with everyone in the Middle East only to sooner rather than later break them and go back to spreading their influence through violence. Oppression, terrorism and hegemony are at the core DNA of this regime, and nothing will change that.

Whoever is deluding themselves into thinking that they can turn Iran into a nuclear-free, responsible and peaceful player in the Middle East needs only to look at Iran’s behavior since 1979. History has proven that revolutionary Iran cannot be turned into a weakened and contained nation state that just minds its own business. It’s time for regime change in Iran, not through boots on the ground, but through a creative way that collapses that regime and brings peace and stability to the Middle East and freedom to the Iranian people. Just because regime change was uncalled for in Iraq in 2003 does not mean that it is also uncalled for in Iran in 2025. Some medications are bad for some diseases, but good for others.

Aref N. Hassan, St. Cloud

The writer is professor of political science and international relations St. Cloud State University.

•••

After weeks working toward a treasured Nobel Peace Prize through negotiations with Iran, Trump has modulated his ambitions. He is now employed as Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s errand boy.

Peter Hill, Minnetonka