In early February of 2026, the U.S. began indirect negotiations with Iran in Geneva, Switzerland. Moderated by Oman, the talks aimed to reach a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
On February 26, a third round of negotiations concluded, Oman announced “significant progress.” Further talks were scheduled for the following week in Vienna.
On February 27, Oman’s foreign minister announced that Iran had agreed to degrade its current stockpiles of nuclear material to unrefined levels, the lowest possible levels.
As recently as his State of the Union address on February 24, Trump affirmed his desire for a diplomatic resolution to the talks.
But the morning of February 28, in the midst of the ongoing negotiations and without permission from Congress, Trump launched a vast military bombardment of Iran in tandem with Israel.
Among countless avoidable civilian deaths, the strikes hit a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab. The strike killed 165 girls, most of whom were between the ages of 7 and 12, and wounded close to 100 additional civilians.
Please note that this Substack is always fully researched and cited; you’ll find the sources listed below every column, e.g. here.
According to the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Israel and the U.S. targeted 3,643 civilian sites in the initial attacks, including 3,090 homes, 528 commercial centers, 13 medical facilities, and 9 Red Crescent centers. Several hospitals and welfare centers have been damaged. (These are all, of course, war crimes.)
On Sunday, March 1, Iranian state media announced that the U.S. and Israel had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, the supreme leader of Iran, as well as several top leaders of the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
So what’s behind the unlawful declaration of war?
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution states that only Congress has the power to declare war. Each of the 11 times that the U.S. has done so, it has gone through Congress.
Naturally, the president declined to follow lawful procedures.
Instead, as though he believes himself to be the protagonist in his own immersive virtual reality game, he and his cabinet decided to invade another sovereign nation, and to name the illegal invasion “Operation Epic Fury.”
On Wednesday, March 4, the death toll in Iran passed 1,045 people.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a briefing, boasting to the press in Trumpian fashion:
“We are only four days into this, and the results have been incredible, historic really… Only the United States of America could lead this,” he enthused, as though he’d just beaten Marco Rubio in Nintendo. “I stand before you today with one unmistakable message about Operation Eric Fury: America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy. They [Iran] are toast, and they know it.”
And yet, the president and his cabinet have not only failed to follow the requisite procedures for declaring war, they have yet to come up with a cohesive reason for why they have engaged the U.S. in a war with Iran.
On Saturday, February 28, Trump appeared in a social media post to link the massive attacks on Iran to his perennial claims about the “stolen election” in 2020. “Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump,” he said on his platform Truth Social, referring to himself in the third person, “and now faces renewed war with United States.” (Iran’s interference in the 2020 elections, however, actually favored Trump, so that rationale doesn’t hold water.)
On Sunday, March 1, the day after the strikes began, Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited Israel’s determination to attack Iran—and the certainty that U.S. troops would be targeted in response—as the primary impetus for declaring war. This, Rubio said, had “forced” the Trump administration to take “pre-emptive strikes.” In other words, U.S. strikes were triggered by Israel’s plan to launch an attack on Iran. (The pre-emptive use of military force is illegal under international law.)
On Tuesday, March 3, Trump directly contradicted Rubio’s rationale. He further muddied the waters by stating that that Iran was going to launch preemptive strikes against the U.S. on its own. “It was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” the president said. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” he added modestly, as though he’d won a sandbox fight.
Pete Hegseth, Rubio’s nemesis, took to the platform formerly known as Twitter to throw Rubio under the bus. Trump’s explanation was “100% correct,” he wrote.
What was Rubio to do but backpedal furiously? “I told you,” Rubio insisted to the press. “This had to happen anyway, the president made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program.” Rubio declined to address his comments about Israel’s plan to attack first.
Even before Rubio’s first and now disavowed rationale, Trump administration officials had already acknowledged in closed-door briefings on March 1 with congressional staff that they did not have intelligence suggesting that Iran planned to attack U.S. forces first.
Congressional leaders emerged from the briefings with deep concern. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, said, “It’s much worse than you thought. The Trump administration has no plan in Iran. This illegal war is based on lies, and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation. Donald Trump still hasn’t given a single clear reason for this war, and he seems to have no plan for how to end it.”
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told reporters Tuesday. “This feels like a multi-trillion-dollar, open-ended conflict with a very confusing and constantly shifting set of goals.”
Yet most Republicans continue to avoid pushing back. On Wednesday, March 4, the Senate rejected a war powers resolution to halt Trump’s military action against Iran. The next day, the House failed to pass a similar resolution. Only three Republicans in the Senate and House combined voted to halt Trump’s powers. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio were the only Republicans to join the Democrats in the vote.
Incredibly, the U.S. administration still appears to be “beta testing” reasons for dragging the U.S. into another war to see which rationale sounds best to the public.
Reports point to a host of other forces underlying the invasion.
What really happened behind the scenes to persuade the “president of peace” that another war was in his best interests—which are, after all, the only ones he serves?
The New York Times conducted an investigation of the events leading up to the invasion. They interviewed multiple sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations: diplomats from the region, Israeli and American administration officials, the president’s advisors, congressional lawmakers, and defense and intelligence officials. Almost all spoke on the condition of anonymity.
On the morning of February 24, just two days before the third round of negotiations with Iran began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel met Trump in the Oval Office. According to sources, the Israeli leader and Trump had been discussing a military offensive against Iran for weeks. But the recent negotiations with Iran threatened to derail Netanyahu’s plans. According to the Times sources, the Prime Minister came to Washington to ensure that the U.S. president remained on the path to war.
Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has been angling to go to war on Iran for more than thirty years. In 1992, he claimed to Israel’s Knesset that Tehran was just a few years away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. “Within three to five years,” he said at the time, “we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb.”
In 2002, he appeared before a U.S. congressional committee to advocate for an invasion of Iraq, insisting that both Iraq and Iran were racing to develop nuclear weapons. Shortly afterward, the U.S. led the invasion of Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found.
A White House Situation Room meeting was convened to discuss the prospect of a military invasion. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top military advisor to Trump, told the president that a war could lead to significant American casualties.
As he often does, Trump warped this advice to mirror his own reasoning. He announced to the public (via Truth Social, naturally) that Caine had said military action against Iran “would be easily won.”
The U.S. president and his cabinet appear drunk with power, making no secret of their disdain for the sanctity of human life, either with regard to the Iranian people or to their own citizens.
My last column covered the U.S. administration’s embrace of white Christian nationalism. As that, it turns out, is a key theme of the current invasion of Iran.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) announced that it has received over 200 calls from U.S. military regarding comments that multiple U.S. commanders have made about the true purpose of the Israel-U.S. war on Iran. One combat unit commander told his troops that the war is “part of God’s divine plan” and that Trump had been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his [Jesus’] return to Earth.”
Michael L Weinstein, founder of MRFF and a veteran of the US Air Force and Reagan White House, said in an interview with the Middle East Eye that the organization continues to receive complaints from commanders in the army, marines, air force, and space units. “This is not just one rogue commander,” Weinstein said, citing a growing influence of Christian nationalists and fundamentalists in the US military.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, an ultra-conservative Christian nationalist who has been described as the Pentagon’s “holy warrior,” sponsors a weekly Bible study that preaches support for Israel.
Last month, Hegseth invited the controversial Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to lead the Pentagon’s prayer service. Wilson has opposed Muslims holding public office and does not believe women should be allowed to vote.
What many of these articles don’t explicitly mention is that this form of Christian nationalism also incorporates Christian Zionism, an ideology that believes the return of the Jewish people to Israel heralds the “end times” (and the rapture that these U.S. commanders are referencing). Christian Zionists are aligned with Israel because of the nation’s role as the “host” of these end times.
The ultimate plan, however, doesn’t work out too well for Jews. Two-thirds of all Jews will be killed during Armageddon, with one-third surviving only on the condition that they embrace Christianity.
On March 4, Brian McGinnis, a Marine Corps veteran in dress uniform, stood outside the Capitol, where he explained that he had come to “speak out against the Senate and ask them why they’re going to send our men and women to harm’s way when our elected officials said that there would be no world war.”
McGinnis later disrupted a gathering of the Senate Armed Services Committee to denounce the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Three officers attempted to remove him from the chamber. “No one wants to fight for Israel,” McGinnis yelled as the officers shoved him through the door, at which point the protester’s arm became wedged in the door frame. MAGA Senator Tim Sheehy rushed into the fray to “assist” the three officers trying to pull McGinnis through the door. In the video, McGinnis can be seen voicing pain as Sheehy pushes him through the door. Onlookers can be heard crying out as Sheehy breaks McGinnis’s arm.
McGinnis is a Green Party candidate running for the U.S. Senate.
Sheehy has received $641,337 from pro-Israel lobby groups. He later defended his actions.
Meanwhile, multiple media outlets have reported that gamblers took advantage of the prediction market to wager more than half a billion dollars on the Iran strikes via online betting platforms.
One Polymarket account called “Magamyman” made more than $527 million betting on the U.S. attack on Iran. The first trade was placed over an hour before the news broke publicly. Similar bets were made on the U.S. military operation in Venezuela placed on Polymarket and other prediction markets.
Donald Trump Jr. sits on the advisory board of Polymarket. His venture capital firm has invested tens of millions of dollars in the company.
Palantir, Lockheed, and other defense stocks have surged in the aftermath of the invasion.
U.S. investigators now believe that the strike that killed 165 girls was carried out by the United States.
________________________________
On February 28, I taught an online yoga class. As we began, I expressed my sadness at the violence the U.S. has wrought in Iran. The previous month, I happened to be teaching on the day the U.S. invaded Venezuela, and we had a similar conversation.
On Sunday, March 1, I found it difficult to get out of bed. I stared at the ceiling, wondering how we got here and what we do to get out of it. As I lay there, the term “moral injury” kept coming to mind.
In March of 2025, a group of Harvard researchers at the Human Flourishing Program published a new paper that expanded the definition and understanding of moral injury. They defined moral distress as:
“distress that arises because personal experience disrupts or threatens: (a) one’s sense of the goodness of oneself, others, institutions, or of what are understood to be higher powers, or (b) one’s beliefs or intuitions about right and wrong, or good and evil.”
The researchers intend their work to broaden the understanding of moral injury and moral distress as it applies to perpetrators, victims, and witnesses.
The study sparked a collaboration with the American Psychological Association to amend the next manual of mental disorders to include this expanded concept of moral injury.
Those of us who grieve the violence in Palestine, Venezuela, and Iran, the unlawful abductions and deportations of U.S. residents and citizens, the violence of ICE and police brutality, and the upswelling of racism and misogyny—all of which are related—have been bearing witness to a moral degradation that corrodes the soul. Our protests, phone calls, writing, and other forms of advocacy can’t seem to amend it.
We are relatively safe. Yet we also suffer the moral injury of unwitting complicity. And we are surrounded by people, often friends and family, who justify the above human rights violations, who feel that they are “necessary.” This threates our sense of the goodness of others and the world, and often, of ourselves, which is a facet of moral injury.
Moral injury is often accompanied by the loss of agency and loss of the sense that we can act on the world in such a way as to make a difference.
Moral injury ebbs and flows. And it’s not conceptual; it lives not just in our minds but in our bodies and our spirits. It requires gentle tending and the care and acknowledgment of others.
In case you feel it too, please know that you are not alone.
As recently as his State of the Union address on February 24: Ravid, Barak. “Trump Says He Prefers Diplomacy, but Lays the Case for War with Iran.” Axios, February 25, 2026. https://www.axios.com/2026/02/25/trump-iran-us-war-diplomacy-state-of-the-union.
On February 26, as a third round of negotiations concluded: Staff, Al Jazeera. “US, Israel Bomb Iran: A Timeline of Talks and Threats Leading up to Attacks.” Al Jazeera. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/28/us-israel-bomb-iran-a-timeline-of-talks-and-threats-leading-up-to-attacks.
The next day, February 27, Oman’s foreign minister announced: Staff, Al Jazeera. “US, Israel Bomb Iran: A Timeline of Talks and Threats Leading up to Attacks.” Al Jazeera. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/28/us-israel-bomb-iran-a-timeline-of-talks-and-threats-leading-up-to-attacks.
Among countless avoidable civilian deaths, the strikes hit a girls’ school: Staff, Al Jazeera. “Missiles Fired by US, Israel Hit Two Schools near Tehran: Iranian Media.” Al Jazeera. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/5/missile-attack-hits-two-schools-in-irans-parand-iranian-media
According to the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Israel and the U.S. targeted: Staff, Al Jazeera. “Missiles Fired by US, Israel Hit Two Schools near Tehran: Iranian Media.” Al Jazeera. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/5/missile-attack-hits-two-schools-in-irans-parand-iranian-media
On Sunday, March 1, Iranian state media announced that the U.S. and Israel had killed: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Who Led the Islamic Republic since 1989, Is Dead at 86.” AP News, March 1, 2026. https://apnews.com/article/iran-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-dead-5b13b69b708c4ed38e8f95f5fb41a597
On Saturday, February 28, Trump appeared in a social media post to link the massive attacks: Roston, A. (2026, March 1). Trump appears to link Iran attack to his 2020 election loss. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/01/trump-iran-attack-2020-election-loss
Each of the 11 times that the U.S. has done so: Roos, Dave. “How Does the US Officially Declare War?” HISTORY, March 4, 2026. https://www.history.com/articles/us-officially-declare-war-constitution-congress
According to a report by The New York Times, on the morning of February: “How Trump Decided to Go to War With Iran - The New York Times.” Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html
Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top military advisor to Trump: “How Trump Decided to Go to War With Iran - The New York Times.” Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html
He announced to the public: “How Trump Decided to Go to War With Iran - The New York Times.” Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html
Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited Israel’s determination to attack Iran: Trump news at a glance: Rubio and his boss can’t seem to agree on why US attacked Iran. (2026, March 4). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/03/trump-news-rubio-iran
On Tuesday, March 3, Trump directly contradicted Rubio’s rationale: Blake, A. (2026, March 3). Analysis: The rationale for striking Iran was already a mess. Trump just made it worse. | CNN Politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/politics/explanation-trump-preemptive-iran-strikes
“I told you,” Rubio insisted to the press. “This had to happen anyway: Nowell, C., Clayton, A., Popat, S., McEwen, K., Ambrose, T., Clayton, C. N. (now); A., & Ambrose (earlier), T. (2026, March 4). Rubio tries to backtrack after Israel comments later contradicted by Trump trigger criticism – as it happened. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/mar/03/donald-trump-iran-war-powers-kristi-noem-primaries-friedrich-merz-latest-news-updates
But even before Rubio’s offered his now-disputed rationale, the Trump administration: POLITICO. “Pentagon Offers No Evidence to Support Claim It Attacked Iran in Defense.” March 1, 2026. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/01/trump-iran-preparing-attack-no-evidence-00806447 See also: Stewart, Phil, Humeyra Pamuk, Phil Stewart, and Humeyra Pamuk. “Pentagon Tells Congress No Sign That Iran Was Going to Attack US First, Sources Say.” United States. Reuters, March 2, 2026. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-tells-congress-no-sign-that-iran-was-going-attack-us-first-sources-say-2026-03-02/
Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, said, “It’s much worse than you thought: https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/videos/watch/i-just-left-a-classified-briefing-with-the-trump-admin-about-the-war-in-iran
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, also a Democrat, said: Reporter, E. P. (2026, March 4). Senator Says Secret Briefing on Iran Proves It’s ‘Worse Than You Thought.’ The Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/senator-elizabeth-warre-says-secret-briefing-on-iran-proves-its-worse-than-you-thought/
On Wednesday, March 4, the Senate rejected a war powers resolution: Full list of Republicans voting to curb Trump’s Iran War. (2026, March 5). Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/us-iran-war-powers-vote-republicans-donald-trump-11628563
In 1992, he claimed to Israel’s Knesset that Tehran was just a few years away: The history of Netanyahu’s rhetoric on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. (n.d.). Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/6/18/the-history-of-netanyahus-rhetoric-on-irans-nuclear-ambitions
In 2002, he appeared before a U.S. congressional committee to advocate: The history of Netanyahu’s rhetoric on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. (n.d.). Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/6/18/the-history-of-netanyahus-rhetoric-on-irans-nuclear-ambitions
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) announced that it has received: US troops were told Iran war “anointed by Jesus” to bring on Armageddon, watchdog says. (n.d.). Middle East Eye. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troops-told-iran-war-anointed-jesus-bring-armageddon-watchdog-says See also: Democracy Now! “Report: U.S. Commander Told Troops ‘Trump Has Been Anointed by Jesus’ to Wage War on Iran.” https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/4/headlines/report_us_commander_told_troops_trump_has_been_anointed_by_jesus_to_wage_war_on_iran
“This is not just one rogue commander,” Weinstein said: Shamim, S. (n.d.). Why are the US and Israel framing the ongoing conflict as a religious war? Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/4/why-are-the-us-and-israel-framing-the-ongoing-conflict-as-a-religious-war See also:
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, an ultra-conservative Christian nationalist: US troops were told Iran war “anointed by Jesus” to bring on Armageddon, watchdog says. (n.d.). Middle East Eye. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troops-told-iran-war-anointed-jesus-bring-armageddon-watchdog-says
Two-thirds of all Jews will be killed during Armageddon: Contributor. (2022, February 21). Factsheet: Christian Zionism. Religion Media Centre. https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/factsheets/factsheet-christian-zionism/
McGinnis later disrupted a gathering of the Senate Armed Services Committee to denounce: Marine veteran protesting Iran war suffers broken arm in struggle with GOP senator. (2026, March 6). The Independent. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/tim-sheehy-iran-war-protester-senate-b2932413.html
One Polymarket account called “Magamyman” made more than: Democracy Now! “Gamblers Use Polymarket ‘Prediction Market’ to Wager $529 Million on Iran Strikes.” Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/3/headlines/gamblers_use_polymarket_prediction_market_to_wager_529_million_on_iran_strikes
Palantir, Lockheed, and other defense stocks have surged in the aftermath: Gavin, W. (2026, March 2). Palantir, Lockheed and these other defense stocks rise on heels of Iran conflict. MarketWatch. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/palantir-lockheed-and-these-other-defense-stocks-are-rising-on-heels-of-iran-conflict-3832f763
A group of Harvard researchers at the Human Flourishing Program published a new paper: VanderWeele, T. J., Wortham, J. S., Carey, L. B., Case, B. W., Cowden, R. G., Duffee, C., Jackson-Meyer, K., Lu, F., Mattson, S. A., Padgett, R. N., Peteet, J. R., Rutledge, J., Symons, X., & Koenig, H. G. (2025). Moral trauma, moral distress, moral injury, and moral injury disorder: Definitions and assessments. Frontiers in Psychology, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1422441
The study sparked a collaboration with the American Psychological Association: Brownstein, M. (2025, September 17). ‘Moral injury’ officially recognized as mental health condition | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/moral-injury-officially-recognized-as-mental-health-condition/
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