Trump Wages Further War in Iran with Profane Remarks on Easter Sunday

By Luke Collins

The tide is turning for Trump with the Iran War being even more unpopular than the Iraq War at this stage, with approval ratings of the war being at ‘38%’; even a Fox News Survey found that 59% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s second term in office.

The average price of gas is now $4 in America, a dollar higher than the price before the war and the price of diesel is now $1.70 higher. The higher costs have meant that many people do not support the war and has caused a civil war among MAGA. Many among MAGA claim that people should not be complaining about a short term spike for long term gain. Conservative commentators such as Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor-Greene have butted heads with the war hawks of the Republican Party such as Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham. It seems that people are upset that the man who campaigned on no new wars and lower gas prices has had rising gas prices and a new war in the Middle East when he took office. Totally unexpected from the first recipient of the FIFA Peace Prize.

On February 28th, America and Israel attacked Iran’s capital Tehran supposedly targeting military infrastructure and nuclear sites, they had previously attacked Iran in June of last year; the launch of Operation Epic. Ayatollah Khamenei was executed in the first strikes, and his son Mojtaba Khamenei was named as his successor on the 8th of March. The Iranian Regime has become increasingly unpopular and from December of last year, there has been protests against the regime’s human rights suppression, demanding fundamental political change which were met by a deadly crackdown from Iranian security forces who cut out internet access and used unlawful force ‘which resulted in mass killings and serious injuries’.

The new Ayatollah is even ‘more hardline and conservative than his father’ which led to Trump expressing ‘disappointment’ at his succession to leadership. In response to the US-Israel attacks which reportedly also attacked a girls school killing 110 children, Iran carried out ‘widespread missile and drone attacks’ on its neighbouring regions, mostly targeting Israel but also countries that hosted US bases such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait reportedly resulting in 24 deaths around the gulf.

A proxy war has also developed in Lebanon from the 2nd of March and according to the Lebanese Health Ministry ‘Israeli attacks had killed 1,345 people, including 125 children’. The death toll in Iran has reached 3,527 people since the war began including ‘244 children’. The death toll on the other side has been less with only 19 Israeli citizens dying as a result of Iranian and Lebanese attacks and 13 United States servicemen losing their lives.

The real question is why the United States and Israel have decided to go to war with Iran, mostly the fear of Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently claimed since 1995 that Iran are ‘weeks away from building a nuclear bomb’ yet apparently have never done so and despite Trump’s claims that the USA and Israel ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear capabilities during the bombing attacks last June. Both members of the Israeli and American governments have stressed the need to ‘pre-emptively strike’ Iran before it could build a nuclear weapon in the same vein as the US and UK’s justification for invading Iraq in 2003. Both have openly supported regime change in the past. There are underlying reasons to this decision to enter into armed conflict now however going back to the 1979 Iranian Revolution which deposed of the Western-backed Shah and installed the Ayatollah Khomeini. The destruction of Israel has long been an objective of Iran and Khomeini referred to the United States as the ‘Great Satan’.

The 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal negotiated by Barack Obama ensured that Iran’s uranium enrichment levels could not exceed 3.67% but Trump pulled America out of that deal and at the time of the USA-Israel attack last year, Iran’s enriched its uranium purity to 83.7% (90% is what is needed to be reached to build a nuclear weapon). Iran does not have a nuclear weapons programme but that did not stop Israel and the United States from pressuring Iran to not develop weapons. Starting on February 17th, the US and Iran began talks in Switzerland mediated by Oman who have US bases in their country. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that “the path to an agreement has begun,” and there was hope that a deal could be reached between the two but the day before the strike on Tehran, Trump stated that he was “not happy with the negotiation,” and in his frustration seemed to decide to take matters into his own hands.

What was unspecified from the outset however was how long this war would last. Netanyahu was determined that the war would “continue as long as it is needed” but in America there was less certainty on the plan to end the war. Conservative commentators and cabinet officials including Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth specified that this would not be a ‘forever war’ even though Trump posted on Truth Social that ‘wars could be fought forever’. After killing the Ayatollah, Trump had declared that the war was ‘won’ and that “we have really achieved change” but then apparently they have “not won enough”. All evidence points towards the war continuing especially after Iran closed the Strait Of Hormuz.

The Strait located in the Persian Gulf acts as a critical energy checkpoint ‘handling roughly a quarter to a third of global oil shipments’ . Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz by warning that any ‘any vessel attempting to transit the waterway would be targeted’. This has ‘dramatically pushed up global energy prices’. Not only are US Ships at threat of attack but UK ships are also counted as a legitimate target and as a result of the closure ‘1,000 vessels were now stuck in the Gulf’ and only ‘99 vessels passing the narrow strait so far this month’.

Due to the global impact, Trump has seemingly asked allies such as the UK to help out but ‘Sir Keir Starmer has refused to deploy Royal Navy warships for Trump’s plan for a maritime operation to re-open the Strait’. Starmer was criticised by the likes of Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage and even Tony Blair who of course went to war in Iraq alongside the US when he was Prime Minister. His decision to not to join the US stating that he has “learnt the lessons of Iraq” has caused a fracture in the seemingly warm relationship the two men had up until this point. Trump had stated he was “very disappointed with Keir Starmer” for his decision and his criticism has only amped up threatening to walk out of NATO. Trump’s view of Starmer has been fundamentally altered despite Starmer still allowing US forces to use UK bases such as the Diego Garcia on the Chagos Islands as a base to target Iranian missiles but Starmer insists that he won’t let Trump bully him into entering the war.

On Wednesday, Trump gave an update on the war stating that the war’s “core strategic objectives are nearing completion,”. Trump also stated that attacks on Iran would also continue for another two to three weeks and stated that if Iran did not open the Strait Of Hormuz, the USA would bomb Iran “back to the stone ages where they belong,”. This comes after Iran rejected a proposed US ceasefire with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghch stating that Iran would not go into negotiation with the USA.

On Friday, a US pilot was rescued by American forces after this af-15 fighter jet was struck down over Iran and on Thursday night, Hegseth fired many top US military officials including asking Army Chief Of Staff Randy George to step down indicating that not all is right within the US military. Trump issued another threat to Iran on Sunday stating on Truth Social “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”. Only time will tell if the Middle East will be peaceful once again.