US and Israel’s Excessively Bold War of Aggression Against Iran

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, unprovoked. Then-US President George H. W. Bush declared “This aggression will not stand,” and proceeded to send U.S. troops to the region beginning the Persian Gulf War. The U.N. Security Council adopted resolutions urging Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. According to the NY Times, 82% of Americans supported President Bush’s war on Iraq to defend Kuwait against Iraq’s bold act of aggression. 

Now in 2026, the U.S. and Israel have embarked on their own excessively bold war of aggression against Iran, going so far as to decapitate the regime, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in its bombing campaign and injuring his newly elected replacement, his son Mojtaba Khamenei. 

Contrary to assertions by the U.S. Administration, Iran is not guilty of anything other than building its war apparatus, ballistic missiles, and its efforts to build a nuclear weapon – the prerogative of any nation – and no different than the policies of the state of North Korea, which has also produced many ballistic missiles and has already achieved nuclear capability. North Korea has already developed and built many nuclear weapons. However, the US is not considering bombing North Korea.

 Iran also actually entered into negotiations with the US over its nuclear program.

The only thing Iran has done that differs from North Korea is its military and other aggressive support for its proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen. Largely that policy mostly threatens Israel, which explains why Israel would want regime change in the country, or for it to be reduced to a failed state.

However, the Iranian regime has long adopted a very adversarial posture against the US and Israel, encouraging chants of “Death to Israel, Death to America.” 

Killing Iran’s Supreme leader is nonetheless really a gross violation of the conventional rules of war and threatening to kill any subsequent leader who does not satisfy the political desires of Israel, or the US is tantamount to holding the state of Iran hostage. 

This US and Israel war of aggression on Iran is truly an illegal war. The UN Security Council has been rather tame in its addressing of this illegal war, however, with Colombia stating in a meeting that the attacks contravened the UN Charter and that no State can unilaterally claim the right to attack another. Russia and China both condemned US and Israel’s attacks on Iran, with Russia calling them “another unprovoked act of armed aggression,” according to Democracy Now!. 

This US-Israeli war on Iran is also shortsighted – with President Trump unclear about the endgame for this war, expressing different desires of popular uprising against the regime, which appears very unlikely, or that the Iranians would elect as Supreme Leader a person who is politically suitable to the US and Israel. The Iranians’ choice for Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, a hard-liner, shows that the regime is entrenched and plans to continue along the same political lines as under the previous Supreme Leader. 

Where this war will go – if Israel continues to attempt to decapitate the regime again through bombing, or if the US decides to send troops on the ground with the intent of removing the regime entirely – is up in the air. The U.S. Congress should insist on the public testimony before Congress and the American people of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on this war.

US popular support for this war is very limited, with only about 40% supporting the war, and 53% opposed to the war, according to a Quinnipiac Poll reported by PBS News. 55% stated they did not believe Iran posed an "imminent military threat" to the U.S. However, a recent AP-NORC poll found about half of U.S. adults were highly concerned that Iran's nuclear program posed a direct threat to the U.S. Obviously, those people were not thinking about North Korea and its nukes. 

Meanwhile in Israel, support for the war is strong, with 93% of Jewish-Israelis supporting the war, according to a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, reported by Aljazeera. 

Embarking on an excessively bold war of aggression against a state can produce unintended consequences and we wait to see how this war plays out and whether the US and Israel will be eventually faced with a comeuppance for their excessive boldness. 

David Fine

Toledo, Ohio

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