Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher

There is nothing about our current administration’s actions so far that points to what this nation really needs–some normalcy.

Without traditional Congressional action, the President decided to go to war over the weekend.  The U.S. military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel’s effort to destroy Iran’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe.

So are we at war now?  The President’s decision to directly involve the U.S. came after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

We now Israel and Iran are at War.  Israel launched a surprise barrage of attacks on sites in Iran on June 13, which Israeli officials said was necessary to head off what they claimed was an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs. Iran has retaliated with a series of missile and drone strikes in Israel, while Israel has continued to strike sites in Iran.

Now, we may be at war as well.  Again, President Trump has signaled that it was a successful bombing by the U.S. but the administration did it without an end game, meaning it will likely escalate the war and our involvement in it.  It is more than likely that Iran will retaliate, we just don’t know when or how.  But our troops in that area have less security than they did before the strike.

We won’t know for a while just how successful the strike was in stopping Iran’s nuclear program.  Relying on information from this administration is not wise.  But if news reports reveal something different, it’s just “fake news” right?  For what we know now, the U.S. strikes on Iran may have even been a turning point that results in that country’s determination to actually build a nuclear arsenal, something it hasn’t done yet.

Congress has been quiet as the administration carries out government service cuts, deportations and attacks on higher education.  Now we have to wait and see if war is something Congress and this country is willing to allow the President to pursue.