No End In Sight

Well, as predicted, we nestle ourselves comfortably in the center of the Middle East. The self-styled “No More Wars” president has struck yet another country alongside the nation that holds the chain to our collar, Israel. As of this week, the war has officially gone on for more than a month, but with varied remarks from the Trump Administration there’s really no saying how long it could take.

The poetically dire atmosphere grows worse daily. Innocent men, women, and many children have met their demise in our thousands of attacks as we bomb different parts of Iran alongside Israel. Black rain falls in Teheran, as we bombed one of its largest refineries.

Just last year, the endless argument of “weapons of mass destruction” pulled us back into Iran nearly 10 days after Israel made its attack on June 13 with Operation Midnight Hammer [I must say, the operation names for our aggressions seem to get worse with every war crime]. This year we were pulled back in in a similar fashion, once again, standing with Israel as we blindly lash out at a country we have attacked countless times for weapons they may or may not have.

While some congressional sources have reported approximately $1 billion spent a day on this war, Politico reported that some republicans on Capitol Hill privately feared the spending was closer to $2 billion a day outside of the Pentagon.

Three U.S. officials reported to the Washington Post that $5.6 billion’s worth of munitions were dropped on Iran in the first two days alone, and the U.S. has reportedly attacked 11,000 targets across Iran as of Monday. Billions of dollars are being spent daily to attack thousands of targets to systemically displace a regime once again in the Middle East. At the pace we’re going, Marco Rubio stands to be one of the most powerful people in the world due to his acting as the head of the countries we replace.

However, as many of you already know, the happenings of a war in the Middle East don’t just change the landscape of the participating countries. The Straight of Hormuz has been shut down, and this strait normally carries millions of barrels of oil a day, roughly accounting for a whopping 20% of the world’s petroleum consumption. There have been accusations levied against Iran for planting mines leading to the U.S. bombing of different watercraft.

Recently, Rubio told Al-Jazeera the Strait of Hormuz will open “one way or another” after the war. The key word being “after.” There is no concrete reassurance we will find the global barrage on our energy fixing itself anytime soon.

And those are only economic atrocities. More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran, with approximately 400 being militants, another 400 civilians, and the remaining have gone unidentified. In Lebanon, a reported 1,200 have been killed as it faces a ground invasion from Israel due to Netanyahu’s fear of Hezbollah’s fighting capacity. And while it may be different from Iran, it serves the point of Israel’s and the United States’ never-ending want for war. The U.S. has reported 13 soldier deaths, seven from enemy fire, and well over 100 injuries. The worst of these deaths were the Iranian schoolgirls. There were a reported 160-175 child deaths, and when asked, Donald Trump said it was likely Iran and refused to concede it even could be the U.S.

And in case it needs to be said, if we are not sure that we did not bomb hundreds of children, we are committing to something inherently evil.

Preliminary investigations showed the U.S. dropped the tomahawk missile, produced by American-based Raytheon; tomahawks are used by a very small list of countries that most certainly does not include Iran.

At the very least, we can be thankful that a few of our Republicans have cut through party lines to admit the mistake occurred. But regretful apologies won’t turn the tides of war into peace, and it most certainly will not bring back lost lives.